Moscow and Beijing are using hybrid tactics to undermine NATO unity
This was stated by Julianne Smith, the US permanent representative to the alliance. In her view, China and Russia are increasingly using “common tools” for these purposes.
She said there was “no doubt” that both countries, Russia and China, were “acting to sow discord … between the transatlantic partners”. “And now we are very clear about this, we have a deeper understanding of such actions and we intend to fight them,” she told the Financial Times.
“We have seen both countries use hybrid tactics,” Smith reported. – “It seems to me that China is watching very closely how Russia resorts to disinformation and things like coercion and (threat. – RT) energy security, malicious and malicious cyber operations.
The US Permanent Representative to NATO said that “work is already underway” to get NATO member governments to move beyond recognizing the challenges posed by China to responding to them. Smith added that NATO would seek to reach certain “milestones” on this issue at ministerial meetings and summits of alliance leaders.
“In part, this rests with national governments, their decisions, national mechanisms and legislation. Here we are talking about defending our values, defending our unity and defending ourselves against some of the hybrid tactics that China in particular chooses to rely on,” Julianne Smith concluded.
Anti-China course
It is worth noting that there have been concerns in the West before about Russia and China’s evolving cooperation.
For instance, in June 2022 NATO adopted a new strategic concept stating that the deepening of partnership between the Russian Federation and the PRC allegedly contradicted the alliance’s “values and interests”.
In particular, in October this year the White House issued a new version of the U.S. National Security Strategy in which China was defined as the most serious geopolitical challenge to Washington.
The White House said at the time that the U.S. would “compete with the People’s Republic of China, the only competitor that both intends and is capable of changing the international order. In parallel, Washington is going to contain “a threatening Russia”.
“The PRC and Russia are becoming increasingly close, but the challenges emanating from them have important differences. We will focus on maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage over China while containing a still serious threat to Russia,” the strategy states.
A little later, in November 2022, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said after a NATO ministerial meeting in Bucharest that Washington and its allies were competing with China for the opportunity to shape the way the world goes forward.
For his part, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in early December warned alliance members against becoming dependent on China. He said Western countries could not be guided solely by commercial considerations in their economic relations with Beijing.
Under Secretary of Defense for Political Affairs Colin Cole said it was undesirable for other countries to deepen ties with the PRC in the military sphere because the “risks are too high” with “little reward”.
Against this backdrop, Washington has signalled its intention to combat the PRC’s “growing” influence in the developing countries of the Indo-Pacific region. Specifically, the draft US budget for fiscal year 2023 includes $1.8bn for this purpose.
“Will inevitably end in disaster.”
According to Vladimir Batyuk, head of the Centre for Political-Military Studies at the Institute of the US and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Washington and its allies have decided to move to contain Russia and the PRC simultaneously.
“Judging by Julianne Smith’s statement and many other speeches by US functionaries, the West has decided to switch to simultaneous containment of Russia and China. This strategy is doomed to complete failure. The West does not have the power to implement such a plan. And it will inevitably end in disaster,” the expert told RT.
“The US has set itself the task of confronting on two fronts, Russia and China. This is a mistake. By prolonging the Ukrainian conflict and starting a confrontation with China, they are spreading their resources. At the same time, this policy pushes Moscow and Beijing towards further mutually beneficial rapprochement on all fronts”, the expert told RT.
Analysts pointed out that not all NATO countries willingly comply with the US demand to view China as a threat.
“China is a powerful economic power. Europe is directly dependent on supplies from China, so Beijing has leverage over Brussels. Europe’s position is particularly difficult today as it suffers from economic and energy crises. The EU’s break with Russia has already led to problems in the energy and economy. A break with China would mean a shortage of goods that would be very difficult to replace,” Alexander Mikhailov explained.
Sourse: RT
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