NATO’s new Strategic Concept, which outlines the key tasks ahead for the defensive alliance, calls out Russia as the primary threat to Allied peace and security but for the first time the document mentions China, warning of direct threats posed mainly in the economic, space and cyber spheres, and its partnership with Russia to upset international norms of behavior.
The mention of China is a first in the Strategic Concept, which is the first update to the document since 2010. The new document was released on Wednesday during a NATO Summit this week in Spain.
“But clearly, our allies have likewise been concerned about this growing, burgeoning relationship between Russia and China,” John Kirby, the communications director for the White House National Security Council, said during a teleconference with media this week ahead of the release of the new NATO document. “They have growing concerns about China’s unfair trade practices, use of forced labor, theft of intellectual property, and their bullying and coercive activities not just in the Indo-Pacific, but around the world.”
The Strategic Documents contains 49 points, including four that mention China specifically. It highlights China’s goals to control key industry sectors and critical materials and to use “economic leverage to create strategic dependencies and enhance its influence. It strives to subvert the rules-based international order, including the space, cyber and maritime domains.”
Space is an area where “Strategic competitors and potential adversaries” are investing to limit allies from accessing and operating in the military and commercial portions of that domain, the document says.
NATO also warns that China uses “hybrid and cyber operations” and disinformation in an effort to “harm Alliance security” and that the strategic partnership between Russia and China is working to “undercut the rules-based international order.”
Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping reached an agreement to work together in a number of areas, including security, space and technology. However, since start of the unprovoked war, despite Xi backing the invasion, China continues to buy Russian oil but hasn’t provided military aid to Russia.
NATO says it is “open to constructive engagement with China” but that it will also work to prevent China’s “coercive tactics and efforts to divide the Alliance.”
The Strategic Concept also addresses cyberspace concerns. The White House on Wednesday said NATO has a new plan to boost cyber cooperation across the member countries at the “political, military, and technical levels,” adding that cyber will be an important contributor to alliance “deterrence and defense.”
“Building on lessons learned from the conflict in Ukraine, Allies will decide at the Summit to use NATO as a coordination platform for offering national assets to build and exercise a virtual rapid response cyber capability to respond to a serious cyber-attack,” the White House said. “The United States will offer robust national capabilities as part of this support network.”