A News Aggregator That Covers The World's Major Wars And Conflicts. Military, Political, And Intelligence News Are Also Covered. Occasionally We Will Have Our Own Opinions Or Observations To Make.
BEIJING (Reuters) -Beijing lashed back at NATO's accusation that China challenges the bloc's interests and security, and opposed any attempt by the military alliance to expand its footprint into the Asia-Pacific region.
In a strongly worded communique issued midway into a two-day summit in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius on Tuesday, NATO said the People's Republic of China (PRC) challenged its interests, security and values with its "ambitions and coercive policies".
"The PRC employs a broad range of political, economic, and military tools to increase its global footprint and project power, while remaining opaque about its strategy, intentions and military build-up," NATO heads of state said in their communique.
Boris Pistorius, the defense minister of Germany, has outlined how NATO would respond should China transfer weapons to Russia in the ongoing war in Ukraine.
On the sidelines of a summit in Stockholm, Pistorius said the support for Kyiv will be strengthened even further if China starts supplying weapons to Russia, DW News reported on Thursday, noting that Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg were also participating in the Stockholm meeting and discussed the supply of weapons to Kyiv.
China has denied allegations that it had suggested supplying Russia with weapons. CIA Director William Burns has said that the U.S. was "confident" Beijing is considering supplying Moscow with lethal equipment to support its invasion of Ukraine.
WNU Editor: NATO says it will strengthen their resolve to support Kyiv is China supplies weapons to Russia. The US has been more blunt and specific on what they would do .... How the US could respond if China gives lethal aid to Russia (The Hill).
* NATO's chief said on Wednesday that there are signs China may send lethal aid to Russia.
* Washington has warned of "serious consequences" if China further involves itself in the war.
* US official believes Russia is running out of munitions and has lost up to half of its tanks.
NATO is growing concerned that China is planning to send military aid to Russia and has joined the US in urging Beijing against further involvement in the war in Ukraine.
"We are also increasingly concerned that China may be planning to provide lethal support for Russia's war," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters earlier this week.
During a Wednesday interview with the Associated Press, Stoltenberg was asked if the military alliance is aware of any indication that China is preparing to do so. "We have seen some signs that they may be planning for that and of course NATO allies, the United States, have been warning against it because this is something that should not happen. China should not support Russia's illegal war," he told the outlet.
WNU Editor: NATO (and U.S.) concerns that China may get involved in the Russia - Ukraine war are justified. Currently the war has all the appearance of being balanced between the two sides. Neither side is making any real progress, and casualties are high. It has become a war of attrition, and Ukraine has anywhere from 700,000 to one million bodies to throw into the fight. Ditto for Russia.
What can change this balance is China. If China decides to get involved by openly supporting Russia by providing weapons and ammo, I can see this war ending within a year. The West cannot compete with China's massive manufacturing base, and in a war of attrition it is the side with the most manpower, weapons, and ammo that will win.
So will China intervene?
In the past I said no. But what has changed in the past few days is that I am hearing reports from my friends in China that Ukraine President Zelensky made a decision through back channels to categorically reject Chinese President Xi's peace plan to end the conflict.
I do not know if this is true or not, but something has happened, in the past few hours Ukraine President Zelensky is now saying that he wants to meet and discuss China's plan .... Zelensky Wants To Meet China Over Its Ukraine Peace Plan (AFP).
My advice to President Zelensky is to listen and respectfully take the time to understand what China is proposing in its peace plan. Now is not the time to disrespect China, and especially President Xi who has taken the time to promote and advance China's offer.
President Xi will be visiting Moscow in the coming weeks. You do not want him to be in Moscow declaring his open support for Russia in this war.
Tokyo — China's growing assertiveness and collaboration with Russia poses a threat not only to Asia but also to Europe, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday as he sought stronger cooperation and more "friends" for NATO in the Indo-Pacific region. Stoltenberg said China is increasingly investing in nuclear weapons and long-range missiles without providing transparency or engaging in meaningful dialogue on arms control for atomic weapons, while escalating coercion of its neighbors and threats against Taiwan, the self-ruled island it claims as its own territory.
"The fact that Russia and China are coming closer and the significant investments by China and new advanced military capabilities just underlines that China poses a threat, poses a challenge also to NATO allies," Stoltenberg told an audience at Keio University in Tokyo. "Security is not regional but global."
"NATO needs to make sure we have friends," he said. "It is important to work more closely with our partners in the Indo-Pacific."
BUCHAREST (Reuters) -NATO allies are concerned about China's rapid and opaque military buildup and its cooperation with Russia, and discussed concrete ways to address the challenges posed by Beijing on Wednesday, said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
"The members of our alliance remain concerned by the PRC's (People's Republic of China) coercive policies, by its use of disinformation, by its rapid, opaque military buildup, including its cooperation with Russia," Blinken told a news conference after a two-day meeting of foreign ministers from the Western defense alliance.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China's cooperation with Moscow since Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Chinese comments against NATO enlargement show why the Western defense alliance should regard Beijing as a security challenge, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday.
"The sum of all is this just increases the importance of NATO allies standing together and realizing that China is part of the security challenges we need to face today and in the future," Stoltenberg said in an interview with Reuters.
NATO looks to shore up ties in the Pacific as tension with China mounts
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday said that for the first time the 30-member alliance will consider China in its defense strategy amid Beijing's refusal to condemn Russia’s war in Ukraine.
"We have seen that China is unwilling to condemn Russia's aggression. And Beijing has joined Moscow in questioning the right of nations to choose their own path," Stoltenberg told reporters from NATO’s headquarters in Brussels.
ROME — NATO will not label China as an adversary in its next strategy document in part because it is too far away from the alliance’s sphere of interest, but members must still try to match its technological progress, according to the chair of NATO’s Military Committee.
Adm. Rob Bauer, of the Royal Netherlands Navy, said China is a growing concern to NATO but the chances are slim the country will be categorized an an enemy in the Strategic Concept document due for release next year. Bauer serves as the conduit through which advice from NATO’s 30 defense chiefs is channeled to political decision-makers.
A formation of JL-2 missiles takes part in a grand military parade celebrating the 70th founding anniversary of the People's Republic of China in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 1, 2019. (Xinhua/Gao Jie)
NATO is urging China to join international efforts to limit the spread of nuclear weapons amid concerns that the country is rapidly developing missiles capable of carrying atomic warheads
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg recently urged China to join international efforts to limit the spread of nuclear weapons amid concerns that the Asian superpower is rapidly developing missiles capable of carrying atomic warheads.
However, Beijing hit back at NATO, saying that China pursues a defensive nuclear strategy and keeps its nuclear weapons to a “minimum necessary for its national security”, and accused the body of hyping up the threat from China.
Beijing doesn’t pose a “systemic challenge” to any countries, according to a statement posted on the website of its mission to the European Union that added NATO should not exaggerate China’s military power https://t.co/GafGN7AlJr
BRUSSELS/BERLIN (Reuters) - NATO must think harder about how to handle China and its military rise, though Russia will remain its main adversary during this decade, according to a report to be published on Tuesday on reforming the Atlantic alliance.
The report “NATO 2030”, prepared by a group of so-called ‘wise persons’ and containing 138 proposals, comes amid growing doubts about the purpose and relevance of an alliance branded last year by French President Emmanuel Macron as “brain dead”.
“China is no longer the benign trading partner that the West had hoped for. It is the rising power of our century and NATO must adapt,” said one NATO diplomat who has seen the report, pointing to Chinese activity in the Arctic and Africa and to its heavy investments in European infrastructure.
* China and Russia “are two very different challenges for NATO. We don’t see any imminent threat against any NATO ally,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told CNBC from Brussels.
* The comments come amid the lowest point since the Cold War for relations between Russia and the West.
* President Donald Trump this week announced plans to withdraw some U.S. troops from Germany, alarming many NATO officials and German ministers.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg sees no imminent threats to members of the 30-country alliance, even in the face of a rising China and worsening relations with Russia, he told CNBC on Thursday.
“Those two nations [China and Russia] are two very different challenges for NATO. We don’t see any imminent threat against any NATO ally,” Stoltenberg told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble from Brussels.
“But we have to respond to a changing world where we see a more assertive Russia, we see a Russia which is investing heavily in new modern capabilities, including new missiles, and we have seen the aggressive actions of Russia against Ukraine.”
WNU Editor: I agree with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. Russia is focused internally on handling the pandemic, and outside the country the focus is on Syria and Libya. China is engaged in border disputes with almost all of its neighbours. The pandemic is also a crisis that China is still trying to contain. NATO is not on Beijing's radar screen right now.
The head of the military alliance has urged the West not to ignore China's growing military might. He says Beijing's expanding stockpile of nuclear weapons capable of reaching Europe, demands a stronger response.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned Saturday that China's increasing influence had created a "fundamental shift in the global balance of power" that should not be overlooked.
In an interview with Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper, that was released in advance, the Norwegian official said that Beijing had the second-largest defense budget in the world after the United States, and was investing heavily in nuclear weapons and long-range missiles that could reach Europe.
"One thing is clear: China is coming ever closer to Europe's doorstep," he said. "NATO allies must face this challenge together."
Watch out for Chinese companies swooping in with buckets of cash to buy strategic stakes, or majority control in U.S. and European companies as asset prices fall due to the pandemic.
NATO sounded the alarm this week, though without naming names.
“The geopolitical effects of the pandemic could be significant,” said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in web conference of defense ministers on Wednesday. “Some allies (are) more vulnerable for situations where critical infrastructure can be sold out,” he said. Of course he meant China. China has been busy buying Greek ports.
It already pretty much runs Italian textiles. It’s a wonder Italy even makes an espresso machine anymore.
WNU Editor: Stopping foreign investments is not the priority for governments right now. I also do not think that spending money, especially in foreign countries. is the priority for the Chinese government and its companies right now.
For the first time in NATO's history, the alliance is recognizing the challenges posed by China's rise in a summit declaration. NATO's chief said Beijing's growing military capabilities had "implications for all allies."
NATO leaders are to raise concerns about China's growing influence for the first time in a joint leaders' declaration at a summit in London.
The 29 member states will sign off on a statement Wednesday that formally acknowledges the "opportunities and challenges" posed by China's increasing global role.
"We have now of course recognized that the rise of China has security implications for all allies," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday.
The rise of China is one of the greatest challenges that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will face in the coming decades, Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday during an event to mark the 70th anniversary of the military alliance.
“Adjust we must. Determining how to meet the challenge of Chinese 5G technology, meet the challenge of the easy money offered by China’s Belt and Road Initiative, is a challenge European allies must contend with every day,” Pence said during a speech at the NATO Engages conference.
WNU Editor: Maybe China will be a challenge in the coming decades, but for now most NATO members are embracing China's business and trade .... China’s Xi Signs Deals With Europe Worth Billions (The Trumpet).
I have been involved in numerous computer science projects since the 1980s, as well as developing numerous web projects since 1996.
These blogs are a summation of all the information that I read and catalog pertaining to the subjects that interest me.
