Australia and NATO to share intel on China

NATO is stepping up relations with Australia amid the threat posed by China on the other side of the world.

NATO will push Australia to share intelligence and expertise on China as the European military bloc fears coercive policies of its Asian “rival” now threatened stability on the other side of the world.

The drive comes as NATO revealed it had invited Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to its third summit in Washington this year in a bid to step up relations with Indo-Pacific partners.

A senior official said the Indo-Pacific region had become a strategic focus as it was now recognised developments there affected Euro-Atlantic security.

“China is a significant challenge to NATO with its coercive policies and is a systemic rival to the military alliance,” the senior official said.

“Australia has a lot of experience with coercive policies of China, we can learn from that … It is really a key partner with relevant experience in navigating the major challenges we face today.”

Anthony Albanese, Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol during the NATO summit in Madrid in 2022. Picture: AFP

He said power competition was no longer regional and challenges to security linked the two hemispheres, citing cyber and hybrid attacks and emerging disruptive technologies that could be launched from anywhere.

The official added NATO had equally become concerned about the evolving relationship between rogue state North Korea and Russia and the support it was providing to President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.

“Ammunition missiles and so on … the question is what is North Korea getting in return?” the senior official said.

“This shows how a player in the Indo-Pacific, in East Asia, is coming into the picture in a very significant way in terms of European security.

“We want to step up our co-operation with partners in the Indo-Pacific; it is not about NATO expanding to the Indo-Pacific in terms of security and defence, but we are in the business of looking at opportunities to discuss and co-operate with partners in the Indo Pacific.”

Leaders of Australia, South Korea, New Zealand and Japan – that make up NATO’s formal partner nations dubbed Indo Pacific Four or IP4 – have been invited to attend the Washington summit on the assumption they will accept for the third year in a row.

The IP4s have also taken part in NATO exercises in Europe and have joined programs hatched to tackle shared security challenges, cyber defence technology and maritime security.

The senior NATO official added: “Australia contributes to that on which we have a conversation in which we exchange expertise and work together.

“We remain an alliance in terms of deterrence and defence for the Euro Atlantic area, though we are well aware of these global challenges that we face.

“That is why we want to take forward this partnership and co-operation with countries of the Indo Pacific.