Author: Zhong Feiteng
Source: Global Times
NATO Secretary -General Stoltenberg has recently visited South Korea and Japan one after another to strengthen cooperation with South Korea and Japan in the military field.This action indicates that NATO tries to change from a cross -Atlantic security alliance to global security agencies, but this will adversely affect the peaceful development of the Asia -Pacific region.
As we all know, since the establishment of NATO in 1949, its attention has been focused on the two sides of the Atlantic, especially in response to the Soviet threats during the Cold War, and has not paid attention to security challenges in other parts of the world.At that time, the reason why NATO did not get involved in other regions was because NATO was only part of the US security alliance system.In Asia, the United States mainly relies on multiple bilateral security alliances to maintain its dominant position.Behind NATO is the United States, so the new movement of NATO has also constituted an important part of the US global security strategic adjustment, and has to attract our attention.
Stoltenberg issued a joint statement on both sides after talking with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida.According to a joint statement, "Cross -Atlantic Safety and Indo -Pacific Security are closely linked", "What happened in Europe today may occur in East Asia tomorrow" and declare that the partnership between the two parties will increase to "new height".In recent years, the iconic incidents that Japan and NATO have strengthened cooperation include, NATO and Japanese ships held joint exercises in the Mediterranean, Japanese liaison staff worked in NATO in the UK, and Japan participated in NATO's severe sanctions on Russia and strong support for Russia.Ukraine and so on.NATO also welcomes Japan to regularly participate in the NATO Council and NATO Minister of Defense.
Japan and NATO also mentioned China in a joint statement that China not only stigmatized China as "challengers of rules -based international order", but also emphasized that China's enhanced military forces are "serious concerns issues."" ".Stoltenberg also declared that China has controlled the infrastructure of certain NATO member states and will also affect NATO's security.Although the joint statement stated that the two sides have not regarded China as their opponents, they also said they would jointly resolve the challenges brought by China.
South Korea's cooperation between South Korea and NATO is relatively rapid.In June last year, South Korean President Yin Xiyue participated in the NATO summit held in Madrid, Spain for the first time.After visiting South Korea, Stoltenberg did not issue a joint statement on both sides, but also mentioned in the meeting and is closely related to the safety of cross -Gate and India.
In fact, in the official statement and press releases, it is not easy to read the content of NATO hoping to strengthen multilateral cooperation with Japan and South Korea immediately, but Stoltenberg at the Cui Zhongxian Academy of Cui Zhongxian and Japan in South KoreaThe Q & A session after the speech revealed the key information of "NATO Asia Pacific".
Stoltenberg specifically emphasized in his speech that in June last year, NATO and the "Asia Pacific" (AP4) -South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand -the first time to participate in the NATO Madrid Summit, becoming NATO strengtheningImportant steps to cooperate with Yintai partners.One of the prominent features of the summit is that the issue of China involved in China occupied an important position in the NATO agenda, and China has never been mentioned in the previous strategic documents of NATO.This year NATO is likely to continue to invite members of AP4 to the summit held in Lithuania in July.
When asked if it was planned to institutional cooperation between NATO and AP4, Stoltenberg said that NATO has institutionalized this cooperation in many aspects.Its main cooperation areas include maritime, network, technology and arms control.For example, South Korea and Japan joined the NATO Cooperation Network Defense Excellence Center in May and November last year to strengthen the capacity building and intelligence sharing in the field of network security.The level of cooperation includes not only ministerial meetings, but also expanded to the highest level of the head of state.Stoltenberg also made a subtle and highly implied answer to the nuclear deterrence question that Japan and South Korea cared about, saying that NATO's nuclear sharing arrangements are a way to extend the institutionalization of the US nuclear deterrence.It is a world without nuclear weapons, but NATO is still a nuclear alliance. The United States controls nuclear weapons with a carrier system by NATO member states.Obviously, NATO is trying to use "nuclear threats" to coerce and seduce a few Asia -Pacific countries to strengthen cooperation with NATO.
Of course, if NATO wants to promote "Asia Pacific" and achieve globalization, it also faces three challenges.
First, the management of alliance is facing challenges.To expand a European -based security structure to the world, it is necessary to respond to the problem of inconsistent interests in NATO member states in Asia -Pacific. This is a long -term difficulty in the management alliance in the United States Alliance system.One of the most prominent cases in the near future is that the United States has settled in NATO to set up the US -Australian "Oukus" security alliance in the Asia -Pacific region. In fact, it is to avoid opposition from France and Germany.
Second, the United States is unpopular for the "New Cold War" for China.NATO is the product of the Cold War. The United States is the leader of NATO, but whether it is an Asian country or most of NATO's European member states, none of them do not want to join the "New Cold War" of camp confrontation.When answering questions from the Korean and Japanese listeners, Stoltenberg also had to admit that members of NATO have close economic and trade exchanges with China, and no members are in favor of "decoupling" with China.NATO faces the problem that it is not easy to get balance between security and economy.
Third, to deal with security challenges with values, it is the inverted.There are currently 30 member states in NATO, with a total population of about 1 billion. It is used to define security threats with values such as so -called "democracy" and "human rights".However, the security challenges of 1 billion people under the leadership of 8 billion people and Western values around the world are very different.Human beings need a change in conceptual changes in the safety field to properly respond to security challenges in the fields of climate change, gap between rich and poor, medical care, employment, and other basic public services.
The author is a researcher at the Asia -Pacific and Global Institute of Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the director of the Safety Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Science
