Munich – Wake up, Europe. We must face the challenge of China.
That was the message Saturday from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to the global security elite gathered at the Munich Security Conference.
The military coalition chief directly linked Russia’s war in Ukraine to China, pointing to concerns about Beijing launching a war on Taiwan, the self-ruled island Beijing still claims.
“What is happening in Europe today,” he cautioned, “could be happening in East Asia tomorrow.”
Moscow, Stoltenberg underlined, “wants a different Europe” while Beijing is “looking closely at the price Russia will pay – or the reward it will receive for its aggression.”
“Even if the war ends tomorrow,” he said, “our security environment has changed for a long time.”
Stoltenberg’s comments come against a backdrop of wider talks among Western allies about how to approach China as it makes belligerent military threats toward Taiwan and pumps up its own industries with government help.
While countries such as the US have urged allies to take a closer look at Beijing and distance themselves from China’s economy, others have expressed caution about turning China into such an outright enemy.
The NATO chief warned that the Western allies must work together on both the military and economic fronts.
“The war in Ukraine has made clear the danger of excessive reliance on authoritarian regimes,” he said.
“We must not make the same mistake with China and other authoritarian regimes,” he said, calling on the West to end its dependence on China for raw materials to empower societies. He also cautioned against exporting key technologies to the country.
And while focusing on external adversaries, Stoltenberg urged NATO allies to avoid internal strife as well.
“We should not create new barriers between free and open economies,” he said.
“The most important lesson from the war in Ukraine,” he said, “is that North America and Europe must stand together.”