MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th July, 2023) The first day of the NATO leaders' summit confirmed that the military alliance wants to expand its geography to the Asia-Pacific region and challenge China in order to please its leader, Washington, military expert Pierre Henrot told Sputnik.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, that China was increasingly challenging the present world order.
"After Jens Stoltenberg's speech in Vilnius at the end of the first day of the NATO Council meeting, one realizes that NATO is more offensive and aggressive than ever. Boasting about the fact that the Baltic Sea becomes a NATO lake is of course present in his speech, but more striking, NATO now wants to carry its aggressivity from the North Atlantic to the Pacific region, by vigorously criticizing China to please the Americans who undoubtedly lead the Alliance," Henrot said.
Stoltenberg denied that NATO saw China as its adversary but accused Beijing of a military build-up that he said was developing at an unprecedented speed and scale, and without transparency.
"These are very strong political words, squarely confronting China," the former high-ranking officer in NATO and UN observer in the Balkans said to Sputnik.
Henrot suggested that Stoltenberg''s announcement that NATO was coordinating a meeting between Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea confirmed that the alliance was about to start aggressively meddling in the Pacific region.
"Astonishing. When was this decided and confirmed by the 31 member states? I would suggest to change the name of NATO and call it World Treaty Organization," the expert said.
Other key takeaways from the first day of the summit include the leaders' commitment to continuing supplying the Ukrainian government with weapons and ammunition, and the fact that military spending by member states rose 8.3% this year � the biggest increase in decades. Stoltenberg said member states had all reached or exceeded the 2% mark set by NATO.
