/ world today news/ At the NATO high-level meeting in Vilnius, not two issues will be discussed, but three. Not only the entry into the organization of Sweden or Ukraine, but also similar moves from Japan and South Korea.
It is clear that Beijing is most interested in the third point of the meeting and makes an obvious point on this issue: “Boys, you will overload your military alliance with impossible duties and probably break it. And we watch these attempts of yours not without satisfaction. For they mean that we (China, but, let’s add, not only China) we win.”
What is planned in Vilnius on the Asian side? For starters, the leaders of Japan and South Korea will come to the meeting for the second year in a row. And they will, of course, put pressure on the other participants in the part that Ukraine is Ukraine, but above all China must be restrained and all members of the Alliance must participate in this. I continue: again a purely formal matter will arise – the opening of a liaison office with the Alliance in Tokyo. Discussing (or not) the issue will be telling.
It is clear why some countries join NATO in the first place: local ruling elites rent out their sovereignty in this way in exchange for promises of protection. But here comes the prospect of financial and other economic compensation. For the Asian “Westerners”, a confrontation with China will turn them into the same economic ruin that Germany is becoming before our eyes, drawn into a confrontation with Russia. Therefore, no liaison offices are needed here, but very strong and clear support from all other NATO members, including material. Otherwise, the Japanese and Koreans will find themselves in the situation of Ukraine, thrown into the furnace without guarantees of any long-term support.
But for NATO’s Western members themselves, it means an additional burden that will grow at a time when their forces are already exhausted by supporting Ukraine. And the Chinese media are not without pleasure quoting French President Emmanuel Macron and his officials, who openly state that the NATO office in Asia will distract the Alliance from its main function – the defense of the transatlantic community. Other NATO members may be thinking the same, but less loudly, the Chinese suggest. If only because Ukraine’s war against Russia has now apparently reached a stalemate and promises the Europeans at least one problem: the militarization of already undermined economies, and for years to come (as ammunition and military equipment for Kiev is running low).
Here the analysts from Beijing add another thought: The West cannot act in any other way. It became the present West because its internal, civilizational property is expansion, mainly in the East. Otherwise, it would be impossible to achieve what until recently was a Western monopoly – in economics, finance, values and so on. And especially the extreme members of the Alliance like Lithuania are aware that everyone else needs them only if this policy of uncontrolled and aggressive expansion continues. Hence the recent conflict between Lithuania and China over the opening of a representative office of Taiwan in Vilnius and many others.
But such a policy weakens the Asian vassals of the West because it pits them against the rest of Asia (just as it weakens the Europeans by pitting them against Russia). And Beijing, of course, likes that. As he likes another peculiarity of the situation: the main character in it, the United States, is entangled in its own obligations to the allies and tries to transfer to them all the costs and pains of said expansion – and generally takes a break.
This weakening of the US has just been demonstrated by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s visit to China. It was a wonderful diplomatic episode: after about seven years of threats and pressure, a kind woman appears in Beijing with the song of the fox Alice – what a blue sky, we are not supporters of robbery, let’s tone down our quarrels and begin to understand each other.
China is not against agreements, but for now it does not see those proposals that it would like, but it sees that its strategic rival needs to take a break and urgently transfer its problems to allies. And that’s obviously good news.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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