Nato allies single out China and its policies as a strategic ‘challenge’
- The transatlantic military alliance considers a build-up in China’s military capabilities and its cybersecurity threats to be looming problems
- ‘The US and smaller European nations having been working together to bring up the topic of China in the Nato summit,’ a diplomatic source says
The United States has steered Nato allies in Europe to define China as a strategic challenge for the first time in the military alliance’s 70-year history.
Washington’s effort is coupled with increasing geopolitical concern shared by some Central and Eastern European countries, according to diplomatic sources.
But other major European leaders were quick to keep China on their side – at least to a certain extent – after the Nato summit in Britain came to a close on Wednesday.
China’s growing global power offered “both opportunities but also challenges,” Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday, citing a build-up in military capabilities as a looming threat.
A Central European diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said smaller nations in this region “are increasingly feeling the heat of China’s presence”.