By Pei Yongzhen, Hu Jingyu
It is reported that Italy recently deployed its aircraft carrier Cavour to the Pacific for the first time, and other NATO members such as France, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands have successively pledged to send military vessels there too, indicating a strong signal of NATO's intention of meddling in the Asian Pacific affairs, which is bound to undermine regional security.
It's no news that NATO members have sent military vessels to the Asia Pacific in recent years, but never before have they moved on such a large scale with such concentration. "This is an inevitable move for NATO to achieve its 'globalization'," said Liu Qiang, director of the academic committee of Shanghai Centre for RimPac Strategic and International Studies. NATO began to poke its nose into Asia Pacific at the 2022 Madrid Summit when it declared that what's going on in the Asia Pacific will have a direct bearing on European-Atlantic security. Then it reaffirmed its policy position on the region at the Vilnius Summit last year. At the Washington Summit in July this year, it again hyped up tension in the region. NATO's series of moves clearly show that it is no longer content with staying in Europe, but is eager to expand globally with Asia Pacific as a strategic pivot.
"Italy made the head-start to have a louder voice in the bloc," said Xu Ruojie, an associate researcher at the Institute of European Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. According to Xu, Italy has the fourth largest economic aggregate in NATO after the UK, France and Germany, but it has consistently lacked discourse power due to its limited military contributions. Now Italy is actively responding to NATO's attempt at global expansion, setting an example for other members in making substantive military interference in the Asia Pacific, with a view to gaining itself a greater say within the organization in future operations.
As the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and Palestine-Israel conflict are likely to further escalate, the US, which is deeply involved in regional conflicts, is plagued by their spillover effects. "The Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine conflict have diverted America's attention," said Liu Qiang, who continued that the US, the brain of NATO, has been pushing its "Indo-Pacific strategy" and egging NATO members to project forces to the Asia Pacific in recent years. Now it is happy to leverage NATO's strengths to reinforce its weakening military clout in the region, and NATO's European members, given their continued "Russia-phobia", are willing to cater to the US in exchange for its support for European security and will take actions to lessen America's strain on resources, said Xu Ruojie.
"The declaration of so many NATO members to dispatch military vessels to the Pacific mirrors their concern about being marginalized," said Xu. With Asia Pacific's growing status in the global political and economic system, NATO members' readiness to militarily meddle in the region is, on the one hand, to demonstrate their internal unity and cohesion and, on the other hand, to enhance their presence by getting involved in hotspot regional affairs.
Interestingly, some analysts said a question mark should be put on whether those countries can really dispatch military vessels to the Pacific, as some of them may not be able to do that due to practical reasons such as insufficient defense expenditure. In response to this, Liu Qiang said, "NATO's expansionary tendency calls for high vigilance, whether it's just bluffing or will truly act on it."
NATO has constantly stretched its antenna to the Asia Pacific in recent years. It is approaching regional countries like ROK and Japan by peddling security anxieties and is continuously ramping up its force projections in the region in an attempt to shape the security situation here after its "bloc confrontation" thinking. Now several NATO members are planning to send military vessels to the Pacific, a move that will exacerbate the major-country strategic competition and security dilemma in the Asia-Pacific, further threaten its security order, and undermine regional peace and stability.
Experts said that once NATO's strategic vision becomes a reality, peace and prosperity in the Asia Pacific will meet a catastrophic blow with mounting risks of conflicts. The Asian-Pacific region is an anchor of global development and stability and a highland of international cooperation. It is not a geopolitical chessboard. NATO members all dancing to America's tune with weapons in hand and the organization's accelerated steps of globalization with Asia Pacific as a pivot deserve high vigilance of all countries.
