“We are not at war, nor at peace”

BRUSSELS Dec. 12 (EUROPA PRESS) –

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte raised his tone this Thursday against China for supporting Russia in the military invasion of Ukraine and hybrid attacks, ensuring that Beijing is testing the West in its attempt to design a new order. to secure their spheres of influence and that allies must respond by shifting to a “war mentality” to prevent the next “major conflict” from taking place on NATO territory.

In a speech at a forum organized by the think tank Carnegie Europe in Brussels, the NATO leader pointed to a challenging scenario in which Russia, China, Iran and North Korea will take note of the outcome of the war. in Ukraine and in which Europeans have to be prepared to face the danger and repel a future war on allied territory. “We are not at war, nor at peace,” he warned.

After reviewing the numerous hybrid attacks suffered by allies in recent years, including extensive cyberattacks, attacks against critical infrastructure, the instrumentalization of migratory flows or assassination attempts in allied territory, Rutte has pointed out that these cases “are not incidents isolated”.

“They are the result of a coordinated campaign to destabilize our societies and dissuade us from supporting Ukraine,” he pointed out, ensuring that this dynamic for which he has blamed Russia but also China wants to “take the front to the doors and even to the homes” of NATO members.

In this sense, Rutte has framed these threats in attempts to change the world order, something that, in his opinion, Russia and China share. “We have to be clear about the ambitions of China, which is considerably increasing its forces, including its nuclear weapons, without transparency or limitations,” he warned, while censuring Beijing for “intimidating Taiwan and trying to access infrastructure “European reviews.”

For all these reasons, the political head of NATO has warned that the coalition formed by Russia, China, Iran and North Korea wants to “weaken” North America and Europe to break the world order that emerged from the Second World War. “They want to undermine our freedom and reshape the world order. Not to create a more just one, but to secure their own spheres of influence,” he stated.

MOVING TO A WAR MENTALITY IN THE FACE OF THE THREAT TO THE WORLD ORDER

For Rutte, the situation in Ukraine and the hybrid attacks against NATO members are a sign that these countries are “testing” the West and analyzing its reaction to these actions. “No, we are not at war. But we are not at peace either,” he concluded, in a speech in which he attacked Beijing, precisely at a time when NATO has been warning about the arrival of Donald Trump to the presidency of United States that the European security scenario is linked to the Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific.

The NATO Secretary General’s recipe for this security panorama is for allies to react and invest decisively in Defense, in addition to being prepared to coexist with the Russian threat. Thus, faced with the threat of “a great war on NATO territory”, he has urged a change in the mentality of the Euro-Atlantic space to move to “a war mentality” and “hit the turbo” in defense production. and military spending.

“We are not prepared for what awaits us in four or five years. The danger is advancing towards us at full speed,” he warned, pointing out that the situation in Ukraine could be repeated in another part of Europe, so regardless of how resolve the conflict, Europeans “cannot be secure in the future unless they are prepared to face the danger.”