New NATO strategy document zeroes in on Russia, labels China as ‘threat’
According to EURACTIV, NATO agreed on a new Strategic Concept on Wednesday (29 June) which marks Russia as “the most significant and direct threat to allies’ security and stability”, reflecting a grave deterioration in the alliance’s relations with Moscow over the past decade.
The revision of NATO’s new Strategic Concept has been planned since the alliance’s acrimonious London summit in 2019, long before Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year, prompting leaders to seek ways to reinvent the alliance and look toward more global threats.
In the new strategy document, Russia is defined as “the most significant and direct threat to Allies’ security and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area”.
The document rejects the alliance’s previous assessment, saying that “in light of its hostile policies and actions, we cannot consider the Russian Federation to be our partner.”
Instead, the document declares Moscow has “shattered peace and gravely altered our security environment,” adding: “We cannot discount the possibility of an attack against Allies’ sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
It cites Russia’s efforts to modernise its nuclear force, its refusal to comply with international arms control obligations and its attempts to destabilize neighbouring countries on NATO’s eastern and southern flanks.
In consequence of the newly defined Russian threat, the document commits NATO to changing its defensive posture in response.
“We will significantly strengthen deterrence and defence for all Allies, enhance our resilience against Russian coercion and support our partners to counter malign interference and aggression,” it says.
Plans to increase the alliance’s presence in its east will include expanding and rebranding the 40,000-strong NATO Response Force (NRF), possibly by as much as six-fold or higher.
“We will transform the NATO response force and increase the number of our high readiness forces to well over 300,000,” NATO’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced earlier this week, though it still remains unclear how the alliance member states plan to reach that number.
For the first time, NATO’s long-term planning document also includes a mention of China, declaring that Beijing’s “stated ambitions and coercive policies challenge our interests, security and values.”
