Russo-Ukraine war: NATO chief sends China stark warning

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday issued a stark warning to Beijing not to arm Russia against Ukraine.

“The provision of legal aid by China to Russia would be a historic mistake with profound implications,” he said after a meeting of the alliance’s foreign ministers.

NATO allies hosted representatives from Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea to discuss China in the wake of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow.

As well as Beijing’s aggressive stance towards Taiwan, NATO allies discussed the Ukraine war’s impact on the Indo-Pacific region as well as concerns that China is considering supplying arms to Russia.

The secretary-general stressed the alliance had not confirmed China had supplied weapons to Russia but signalled that members of the alliance would have a response, hinting at the involvement of the United States, NATO’s “biggest ally.”

Stoltenberg also told NATO foreign ministers that the alliance must increase defence spending as in “a contested and dangerous world” alliance security can not be taken for granted.

The alliance chief told NATO foreign ministers he expected allies to agree on a new pledge of 2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) as “a minimum to be invested in defence.”

Flush from admitting freshly minted new member Finland, NATO foreign ministers were gathered for a second day of talks focused on the familiar topics of China and defence spending.

A perennial issue, alliance members have long struggled to reach NATO’s self-imposed pledge to spend 2 per cent of GDP on defence by 2024, with the United States making up the majority of defence investment.

In 2022, seven of the alliance members met NATO’s self-imposed 2 per cent pledge on defence spending as a proportion of GDP, down from eight in 2021 and 11 in 2020, according to the alliance’s annual report.

This is up however from just three countries in 2014, the year NATO members committed to reaching this spending pledge faster after Russia annexed Crimea in Ukraine.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine meant allies have to up defence spending but cautioned against using the 2 per cent-of-GDP pledge as the only metric.

“It’s so critical we don’t just talk about percentages, but also about the ability to achieve goals,” she said before the start of the meeting.

Baerbock noted that in economically difficult times, NATO members could meet the spending pledge as economic growth is lower without achieving any real military development.

Other NATO members are pushing for more spending. Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu backed a target of 2.5 per cent.

Estonia has set a goal of at least 3 per cent of GDP spent on defence from next year, he added.