The Risk of Letting NATO Drift to the Pacific

"The NATO summit in Washington was a relatively mundane event. The one surprise was NATO's testier rhetoric on China, a country the alliance once viewed as a competitor but increasingly sees as an adversary ("NATO Wakes Up to the China Threat," Review & Outlook, July 12).

NATO, however, shouldn't be pushing into Asia or treating Europe and Asia as the same theater. The alliance's campaign to solidify strategic relationships with like-minded countries such as Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand isn't cost-free.

First, such a shift contradicts the central purpose of NATO and its founding charter: to maintain the peace in the North Atlantic and defend its member states in conflict with Russia. Consolidating Europe's defense is a big enough job as it is. 

But expanding the mission set to include containing China will make that job more difficult by stretching the alliance's collective military power and distracting the U.S. and its European allies at a time when the continent is still playing host to its largest land conflict in nearly 80 years.

Second, elevating Asia's security issues onto the NATO agenda will create disagreements within the alliance. There are some members, most notably France, who have no intention of blindly following Washington's China policy and would rather preserve strategic flexibility with the world's second-largest economy.

Third, getting NATO involved in Asia will kill whatever hope exists of undermining the decadelong entente between Russia and China. If anything, such a move will cement those relations further.

Daniel R. DePetris

New Rochelle, N.Y." [1]

Timely ideas. NATO's adventure in Ukraine showed both China and Russia that NATO is brain dead , as mentioned by French president Macron, NATO is still able to do sudden and aggressive moves though. This is a dangerous combination both for China and Russia. There will be a lot of work for diplomacy after next American presidential election trying to fix the damage done. Today NATO is biting more than it can chew on.

1. The Risk of Letting NATO Drift to the Pacific. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 17 July 2024: A.16.