NATO leaders were yesterday expected to agree that China presents a security risk, the first time that the traditionally Russia-focused military alliance would have asserted it needs to respond to Beijing’s growing power.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan promised ahead of the meeting in Brussels that US President Joe Biden was attending that China “will feature in the communique in a more robust way than we’ve ever seen before.”
The senior White House official said NATO had a role in developing a shared military capability in response to China, “including in the nuclear sphere,” to engage in information sharing and act as a “forum for democratic values.”
Photo: Reuters
According to a copy of the alliance’s final summit statement seen by Reuters, NATO leaders would say that “China’s stated ambitions and assertive behavior present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order and to areas relevant to alliance security.”
Biden wants to create international blocs of democratic nations to act as a counterweight to China’s authoritarian system and its fast-growing economic and military might, and the topic was also high on the agenda at the weekend’s G7 meeting.
“There is a growing recognition over the last couple years that we have new challenges,” Biden said in brief remarks made shortly after his arrival. “We have Russia, which is acting in a way that is not consistent with what we had hoped, and we have China.”
Other countries have highlighted the importance of striking a balance.
“I think when it comes to China, I don’t think anybody around the table today wants to descend into a new cold war,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said as he arrived at the gathering.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said it was important to engage with Beijing “on issues like climate change, arms control,” but added that “China’s military buildup, growing influence and coercive behavior also pose some challenges to our security.”
G7 leaders criticized Beijing over human rights in its Xinjiang region, called for Hong Kong to keep a high degree of autonomy and demanded a full probe into the origins of COVID-19 in China.
The Chinese embassy in London said that such mentions of Taiwan, Xinjiang and Hong Kong distorted the facts and exposed the “sinister intentions of a few countries such as the United States.”
“China’s internal affairs must not be interfered in, China’s reputation must not be slandered, and China’s interests must not be violated,” it added.
Stoltenberg also said the alliance’s relationship with Russia was at “its lowest point since the end of the Cold War,” blaming Moscow’s “aggressive actions” for the deterioration in relations.
Alliance members were hoping for a strong statement of support for NATO from Biden after several years in which then-US president Donald Trump dominated the summits, threatening to pull out of NATO in 2018 and storming home early in 2019.
“NATO is critically important for US interests in and of itself,” Biden said as he met Stoltenberg, describing NATO’s Article 5, under which an armed attack against one member is deemed an attack against them all, as “a sacred obligation.”
“I want NATO to know America is there,” he added.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
RSS