NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, visiting Washington, on Monday called for China to pay the price for its support of Russia for its war in Ukraine. He hailed the alliance’s biggest rise in military spending in decades.
Speaking in the Oval Office before a meeting with US President Joe Biden, Stoltenberg said that “23 [pays] allies were going to spend 2% or more of their GDP on defense this year”, the minimum threshold set by the Western military alliance which has 32 members.
He indicated that NATO member countries “are increasing their military spending by 18% this year. This is the largest increase in decades”, largely linked to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. A record,” greeted Joe Biden for his part.
Mr. Stoltenberg, who will give up his position as NATO Secretary General in October, is visiting Washington to prepare for the summit of the Atlantic alliance which will be held from July 9 to 11 in the American federal capital, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of its creation.
Consequences”
In a speech to the Wilson Center, a think tank in Washington, he attacked China, while encouraging the Western military alliance to provide more weapons to Ukraine. “It may seem like a paradox, but the path to peace is through more arms to Ukraine,” he said.
He noted that President Xi Jinping is trying “to give the impression that he is standing back in this conflict, in order to avoid sanctions and maintain trade flows.” “But the reality is that China is fueling the biggest armed conflict in Europe since the Second World War and at the same time it wants to maintain good relations with the West,” he said.
“At some point, and unless China changes course, allies must impose a cost. There should be consequences,” argued the NATO chief.
NATO, led by the United States, is increasingly criticizing aid to the Russian war effort provided by China and its companies, which supply components and equipment supporting the military sector. Russian weaponry, with an impact on the battlefield in Ukraine. China denies directly supplying weapons to Russia.
Washington has already taken sanctions against Chinese companies and State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Monday he expected “further measures” if China does not back down.
The secretary general of the alliance also highlighted the fact that NATO will take charge of Western military support for Ukraine, until now led by Washington, to better anchor it over the long term. According to NATO diplomats, it aims to ensure that the flow of military aid to Ukraine cannot be interrupted by a decision from the White House if Donald Trump wins the presidential election in November .
This article was automatically published. Sources: ats / afp
