‘Small dogs on a leash’: Putin takes aim at Australia’s NATO links

London: Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned NATO against further deepening ties with Australia and other Indo-Pacific nations, saying its actions are provocative and risk ruining economic relations with China.

Putin, accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court over the unlawful transfer and deportation of Ukrainian children, took aim at the trans-Atlantic alliance’s growing interest in Asia, blaming Washington for dragging European nations into a contest he claims they do not want.

Russian President Vladimir Putin lashed Australia at a press conference outside Moscow.Credit: AP

The 32-member alliance which includes the United States, Canada, Britain, France and Germany, has signalled its growing worry about China’s assertiveness and ties with Russia. NATO has involved the so-called Indo-Pacific four – Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand – to its past three summits, forging new partnerships with the nations.

“No one seems to consider whether Europeans want to jeopardise their relationship with China by getting involved in Asian affairs through NATO, creating a situation that raises concerns among regional countries, including China,” Putin told journalists at a forum for developing countries outside Moscow on Friday.

“I can assure you that they do not want this. Yet, they are being pulled into this, like small dogs on a leash pulled by a big fellow.

“Their allies – Japan, Australia and New Zealand – are nudged into action, tension is growing as serious weaponry is deployed which poses threats to the countries in the region, including China and Russia.”

Putin said the US was “15 years too late” and could not stop China’s progress, likening it to telling “the sun not to rise”.

“It will rise anyway,” Putin said.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte repeated this week the organisation’s view that China’s moves to assert control in the South China Sea, a transit point for trillions of dollars of global trade each year, are now as much a concern for Europe and North America as for Asian nations.

NATO officials have also raised concerns about China’s growing nuclear arsenal and cyber-warfare capabilities, but stressed that the alliance does not treat China as a “threat” – unlike Putin’s regime – but merely a “challenge”.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte greets Australia’s Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy in Brussels.

A NATO summit declaration in July used the bloc’s sharpest language to date, calling China a “decisive enabler of Russia’s war against Ukraine”, which the Western alliance warned would hurt Beijing’s “interests and reputation”.

Part of NATO’s response has been to build closer ties with countries that share similar concerns about China, including Australia.

Over the past few years, the UK and other NATO countries have sent warships for exercises in the Asia-Pacific region, but diplomats say some member states are wary of both losing focus on Russia and raising tensions with China.

Rutte said on Friday in Brussels that the relationship between NATO and its partners in the Indo-Pacific was “not just about China or Taiwan” and cited North Korea’s collaboration with Russia.

Putin and senior Russian officials have repeatedly threatened a nuclear escalation in the war against Kyiv and its Western partners.

Australia’s Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy, who attended the NATO meeting in Brussels last week, said it was important that like-minded nations protected the rules-based global order and deterred coercion and aggression.

“What happens in Europe affects us in the Indo-Pacific, and what happens in Indo-Pacific affects those in Europe,” he said.

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