Putin makes case for Asia NATO

If Vladimir Putin had set out specifically to make the case for NATO’s growing strategic involvement in the Indo-Pacific – especially the military alliance’s ties to countries such as Australia – he could not have done better than the warning he issued in Moscow last Friday. Speaking to journalists at a forum for developing countries, the tinpot Russian despot was, as usual, hot under the collar and in a lather about NATO expansionism. Warning the world’s most powerful military alliance against further extending its relationship with our region, he mentioned specifically not just Australia but Japan and New Zealand. NATO’s actions, he said, were provocative. They risked ruining economic relations with his close ally, China. “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,” he said. “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.”

It’s a fair bet the “big fellow” Putin had in mind is the US, and the “serious weaponry” being deployed included Australia’s acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS deal. It is also likely that his warning about the threat to economic relations with China was issued at the behest of his “no limits” ally, Chinese President Xi Jinping. But he could not be more wrong if he believes he succeeded in making the case for NATO not to get more involved in our region. The opposite is the case: with 60 per cent of maritime world trade passing through the South China Sea, much of it bound for NATO’s 32 member states, including the US and Canada, the importance to the North Atlantic alliance of maintaining freedom of navigation and security through the region could not be more vital. NATO may have been founded primarily as a military alliance to defend the North Atlantic’s democracies, and it may be preoccupied with trying to help secure Ukraine’s sovereignty against Putin’s evil attempt to subject Kyiv to his oppressive, anti-democratic diktat. But that does not mean NATO should turn its back and ignore the wider global threat resulting from the skulduggery of the so-called “Axis of Evil”, made up of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. The importance of confronting the Axis has been underlined in recent days amid reports that, following Putin’s visit to Pyongyang in June, the lunatic Kim Jong-un regime is dispatching what are likely to be at least 12,000 combat troops to help Russia fight its war to subjugate Ukraine and destroy democracy.

Since August last year, North Korea has also shipped more than 13,000 containers of weapons to help Putin. Iran, too, has rushed to help Putin, sending thousands of combat drones and massive quantities of ammunition, doubtless gaining Beijing’s approval for coming to the aid of Mr Xi’s “no limits” alliance with the Kremlin dictator.

In such circumstances it would be utterly absurd for NATO to do anything other than what it can to help secure its supply routes through our Indo-Pacific region, and also shore up democracies that are under increasing threat from the Axis.

Doing anything other than deepening its strategic involvement with the countries of the Indo-Pacific – especially what NATO sees as the so-called “Indo-Pacific Four”, Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand – would make no sense for the world’s most powerful military alliance. The Russian dictator’s threats make it even more important that NATO pursues its current course of greater strategic involvement in our region as it builds closer ties with Australia and other democracies. They also underline the need for Australia and other democracies to both pursue closer ties with NATO and to do what they can to help ensure that Putin is comprehensively defeated in Ukraine.