<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1655913483330,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000016b-0e59-daea-a7ff-0f5fee2e0002","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1655913483330,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000016b-0e59-daea-a7ff-0f5fee2e0002","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_55824882", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1037363"} }); rn","_id":"00000181-8c22-d66a-a7c3-cf2f85da0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedNATO leaders will discuss “the rise of China” during a summit in Madrid, Spain, next week, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.
The NATO chief called the conversations a “big step” during an online Politico conversation on Wednesday.
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“We will address China, and under the consequences for our security, I think I would understand that for NATO,” he explained. “This is a big step because in the current strategic concept, China’s not mentioned with a single word. That concept was agreed at the summit in response in 2010.”
While the alliance doesn’t consider China to be an “adversary,” Stoltenberg said, members recognize the Chinese are “investing heavily in new modern military equipment, including scaling significantly alter nuclear capabilities, investing in key technologies, and trying also to control critical infrastructure in Europe.”
The secretary-general’s comments come as Russia’s war in Ukraine has dominated in NATO circles for months, and China has delicately attempted to remain neutral to placate the West while continuing to parrot Russia’s narrative on the war.
The two leaders, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, a pariah on the international stage amid the war, promoted their countries’ close ties following a meeting between them last week.
“Since the beginning of this year, Russia-China practical cooperation has developed steadily,” the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a readout of the call, which added that Xi told Putin that his country is “willing to, together with Russia, continue to support each other on issues concerning core interests and major concerns such as sovereignty and security, intensify strategic coordination between the two countries, and strengthen communication and coordination in major international and regional organizations.”
Russia’s war is on the verge of completing its fourth month, with nearly all of its initial goals remaining unconquered. Despite that, it now has the manpower and weapons advantage to win a protracted conflict slowly depending upon NATO and the West’s military contributions.
In a recent development on the larger scale, Russia threatened Lithuania after the latter announced last week that some of the deliveries that travel from inside its borders to Kaliningrad, a former Prussian territory that Russia acquired after World War II, would have to be curtailed to meet European Union-imposed sanctions.
“Russia will, of course, respond to hostile actions of this kind,” Russian Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev, a close ally of Putin, said Tuesday. “The necessary measures … will be introduced shortly. They will have serious negative consequences for residents of Lithuania.”
The State Department reiterated its commitment to NATO’s Article 5, which says that an attack against one ally must be viewed by others as an attack against themselves, in light of the threat to Lithuania, which is a member of the alliance.
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“Lithuania is a member of the NATO alliance,” State Department spokesman Ned Price emphasized. ”We stand by the commitments that we have made to the NATO alliance. That includes of course a commitment to Article 5. That is the bedrock of the NATO alliance.”
Stoltenberg also said Lithuanian leaders briefed NATO allies on the topic earlier this week.
