Keating’s swipe at NATO leader Jens Stoltenberg as Albanese flies to Lithuania for summit
The former prime minister has savaged NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg as a ‘supreme fool’ and claimed the alliance had impeded peace since the Cold War.
Paul Keating has savaged NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg as a “supreme fool” and claimed the military alliance had impeded peace since the Cold War, causing a diplomatic headache for Anthony Albanese ahead of his attendance at the summit of North American and European leaders.
With the Prime Minister invited to the summit in Lithuania as part of a grouping of Indo-Pacific guests, Mr Keating signalled his opposition to Australia’s attendance by declaring NATO had no business expanding its footprint into Asia.
The intervention from the former Labor prime minister comes as Mr Albanese will kick off his week of international travel in Berlin by signing a $1bn defence export contract with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The deal will see Australia supply more than 100 Boxer heavy weapon carrier vehicles to Germany from 2025, supporting 1000 jobs in Queensland.
Mr Albanese said it was “one of the biggest defence sales in Australia’s history”, with the Prime Minister to also discuss expanding the trade of low emissions products with Germany.
From Berlin, Mr Albanese will go to Lithuania on Tuesday as one of the Indo-Pacific Four nations along with Japan, South Korea and New Zealand. Mr Albanese is expected to announce a fresh assistance package for Ukraine.
United States Studies Centre director Peter Dean said Mr Albanese’s attendance at the summit showed NATO nations were increasingly looking towards the Indo-Pacific to help contain China’s influence.
“One of the things that a lot of the NATO countries in particular will be interested in talking to our Prime Minister about is his ability to withstand Chinese trade collusion,” Professor Dean said.
“At a broader strategic level, it is about how these two regions who are facing off against Russia in one and China in another, trying to work together to uphold rules and standards, norms and sovereignty.”
In a statement released on Sunday, Mr Keating said it was a mistake for Mr Stoltenberg and NATO nations to compare China with Russia.
“Stoltenberg, in his jaundiced view, overlooks the fact that China represents 20 per cent of humanity and now possesses the largest economy in the world,” Mr Keating said.
“And has no record of attacking other states, unlike the United States, whose bidding Stoltenberg is happy to do.”
The former Labor prime minister praised French President Emmanuel Macron for blocking a proposal to expand the grouping into Asia through a liaison office in Japan.
He said it would be wrong to export the “malicious poison” of European and American militarism to Asia.
“The Europeans have been fighting each other for the better part of 300 years, including giving the rest of us two World Wars in the last 100,” Mr Keating said.
“Exporting that malicious poison to Asia would be akin to Asia welcoming the plague upon itself. With all of Asia’s recent development amid its long and latent poverty, that promise would be compromised by having anything to do with the militarism of Europe – and militarism egged on by the United States.”
Mr Albanese will make a speech at the NATO summit on Wednesday and hold bilateral meetings with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Mr Macron, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Portugal’s Prime Minister Antonio Costa.
The Prime Minister said he would “catch up” with US President Joe Biden and Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, but did not say whether they would be formal bilateral meetings.
At the weekend, Australia fell short of condemning the US for providing cluster bombs to Ukraine, bucking the trend of other Western nations that have signed a treaty opposing possession of the munitions.
Mr Biden on Friday said it was a “very difficult decision” to send cluster munitions to Ukraine as part of a $US800m assistance package, but it was necessary because Ukrainian fighters were running out of ammunition.
When asked about the cluster bomb assistance, a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said “Australia continues to condemn Russia’s illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine”.
“We note President Biden’s comments that this was a difficult decision, but one essential to supporting Ukraine’s counteroffensive,” she said.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham is demanding Australia increase its assistance to Ukraine.
Writing for The Australian, Senator Birmingham said it was a shame Australia was no longer the largest non-NATO contributor to Ukraine.
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