NATO adopts tough line on China at Biden’s debut summit with alliance
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Saturday
February 04, 2023

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 04, 2023
NATO adopts tough line on China at Biden’s debut summit with alliance

World+Biz

Reuters
15 June, 2021, 08:55 am
Last modified: 15 June, 2021, 09:03 am

Related News

  • China balloon: Many questions about suspected spy in the sky
  • Senior Chinese official calls for timely communication between China, US to avoid misjudgment
  • China says political trust with Russia has deepened after envoy's visit
  • From China to big sky: the balloon that unnerved The White House
  • China's balloon over the US seen as bold but clumsy espionage tactic

NATO adopts tough line on China at Biden’s debut summit with alliance

The new US president has urged his fellow NATO leaders to stand up to China's authoritarianism and growing military might, a change of focus for an alliance created to defend Europe from the Soviet Union during the Cold War

Reuters
15 June, 2021, 08:55 am
Last modified: 15 June, 2021, 09:03 am
NATO Heads of the states and governments pose for a family photo during the NATO summit at the Alliance's headquarters, in Brussels, Belgium June 14, 2021. REUTERS/Yves Herman/Pool
NATO Heads of the states and governments pose for a family photo during the NATO summit at the Alliance's headquarters, in Brussels, Belgium June 14, 2021. REUTERS/Yves Herman/Pool

NATO leaders warned on Monday that China presents "systemic challenges," taking a forceful stance towards Beijing in a communique at Joe Biden's first summit with an alliance that Donald Trump openly disparaged.

The new US president has urged his fellow NATO leaders to stand up to China's authoritarianism and growing military might, a change of focus for an alliance created to defend Europe from the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

The language in the summit's final communique, which will set the path for alliance policy, came a day after the Group of Seven (G7) rich nations issued a statement on human rights in China and Taiwan that Beijing said slandered its reputation.

"China's stated ambitions and assertive behaviour present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order and to areas relevant to alliance security," NATO leaders said in the communique.

Biden also told European allies that the alliance's mutual defence pact was a "sacred obligation" for the United States - a marked shift in tone from his predecessor, Trump, who had threatened to withdraw from the alliance and accused Europeans of contributing too little to their own defence.

"I want all Europe to know that the United States is there," said Biden. "NATO is critically important to us."

Biden stopped at the NATO headquarters' memorial to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States by al Qaeda militants, when NATO triggered its Article 5 for the first and only time. Under the article, the alliance treats an attack on one member state as being an attack on all.

Later at a news conference, Biden, who will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in Geneva, said China and Russia were trying to split the transatlantic alliance and that, while he was not seeking conflict with Russia, NATO would respond if Moscow "continued its harmful activities".

He described Putin as tough and bright.

"Russia and China are both seeking to drive a wedge in our transatlantic solidarity," Biden said. He also pledged to support Ukraine in its conflict with Moscow, although he was non-committal on whether Kyiv could one day join NATO.

"We are going to put Ukraine in a position that they will be able to maintain their physical security," Biden said, without giving more details.

'America Is Back'

While there are still differences in strategies on how to deal with China across the West, Biden said NATO was united under US leadership. "America is back," he said, seeking to reassure Europeans that a Trump-like populist would not be back in the White House in four years.

"The leadership of the (US) Republican Party is fractured and the Trump wing of the party is the bulk of the party, but it makes up a significant minority of the American people".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, at her last summit of the alliance before she steps down in September, described Biden's arrival as the opening of a new chapter. She also said it was important to deal with China as a potential threat, while keeping it in perspective.

"If you look at the cyber threats and the hybrid threats, if you look at the cooperation between Russia and China, you cannot simply ignore China," Merkel told reporters. "But one must not overrate it, either - we need to find the right balance."

In NATO's glass and steel headquarters on the outskirts of Brussels, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said China's growing military presence from the Baltics to Africa meant nuclear-armed NATO had to be prepared.

"China is coming closer to us. We see them in cyberspace, we see China in Africa, but we also see China investing heavily in our own critical infrastructure," he said, a reference to ports and telecoms networks.

Stoltenberg also said the leaders had agreed to increase their contributions to the alliance's common budget. The vast bulk of military spending in NATO is handled separately by member countries.

China's Reputation

G7 nations meeting in Britain over the weekend scolded China over human rights in its Xinjiang region, called for Hong Kong to keep a high degree of autonomy and demanded a full investigation of the origins of the coronavirus in China.

China's embassy in London said it was resolutely opposed to mentions of Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan, which it said distorted the facts and exposed the "sinister intentions of a few countries such as the United States".

"China's reputation must not be slandered," the embassy said on Monday.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there were risks and rewards with Beijing. "I don't think anybody around the table wants to descend into a new Cold War with China," he said.

From China's investments in European ports and plans to set up military bases in Africa to joint military exercises with Russia, NATO is now agreed that Beijing's rise deserves a strong response, although envoys said that would be multi-faceted.

Allies are mindful of their economic links with China. Total German trade with China in 2020 was more than 212 billion euros ($257 billion), according to German government data. Total Chinese holdings of US Treasuries as of March 2021 stood at $1.1 trillion, according to US data, and total US trade with China in 2020 was $559 billion.

Top News

NATO / china / Military

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Influentials thwart Bangladesh's reform attempts: Economists
    Influentials thwart Bangladesh's reform attempts: Economists
  • Representational image. Picture: Collected
    Gold price reduced by Tk1,200 per bhori
  • The Adani Group headquarters in Ahmedabad. Photo: Bloomberg
    Adani Enterprises shelves $122 million bond plan

MOST VIEWED

  • Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi and Foreign Ministers of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), including East Timor's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Adaljiza Magno prepare to pose for group photos during the 32nd ASEAN Coordinating Council (ACC) meeting at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, Indonesia, February 3, 2023. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan
    ASEAN chair Indonesia to intensify talks on code for South China Sea
  • Photo: Collected
    Google invests almost $400M in ChatGPT rival Anthropic
  • FILE PHOTO: Crude oil tanker Advantage Angel sails in the Bosphorus, on its way to the Mediterranean Sea, in Istanbul, Turkey December 12, 2022. REUTERS/Yoruk Isik
    US warns Turkey on exports seen to boost Russia's war
  • FILE PHOTO: Brazilian aircraft carrier Sao Paulo is seen in this handout picture, June 7, 2011. Brazilian Navy/Handout via REUTERS
    Brazil sinks rusting old aircraft carrier in Atlantic despite pollution risk
  • Israeli forces kill unarmed Palestinian man in occupied West Bank
    Israeli forces kill unarmed Palestinian man in occupied West Bank
  • Photo: Collected
    Indian ministry reviews Adani Group financial statements

Related News

  • China balloon: Many questions about suspected spy in the sky
  • Senior Chinese official calls for timely communication between China, US to avoid misjudgment
  • China says political trust with Russia has deepened after envoy's visit
  • From China to big sky: the balloon that unnerved The White House
  • China's balloon over the US seen as bold but clumsy espionage tactic

Features

Sketch: TBS

Say 'Salud' before your salad main course

11h | Food
Coots running. Photo: Enam Ul Haque

Cute Coot of Baikka Beel: 'And yet he was as bald as a coot'

5h | Panorama
With only one government run specialised cancer hospital in the capital — the National Institute Of Cancer Research and Hospital (NICRH) in Mohakhali — patients have no option but to resort to private hospitals. Photo: Noor A Alam.

Cancer care: Medical treatment and beyond

12h | Panorama
Andy Mukherjee. Sketch: TBS

What makes India's billionaires' support special for Adani

1d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Prioritise medical equipment, raw material imports over luxury items

Prioritise medical equipment, raw material imports over luxury items

2h | TBS Round Table
Adani row rocks India’s parliament

Adani row rocks India’s parliament

2h | TBS World
Concord launches new plant to produce environment friendly bricks

Concord launches new plant to produce environment friendly bricks

7h | TBS Stories
How Asif Khan would invest his fresh funds right now

How Asif Khan would invest his fresh funds right now

8h | TBS Markets

Most Read

1
Leepu realised his love for cars from a young age and for the last 40 years, he has transformed, designed and customised hundreds of cars. Photo: Collected
Panorama

'I am not crazy about cars anymore': Nizamuddin Awlia Leepu

2
Photo: Collected
Energy

8 Ctg power plants out of production

3
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo is seen outside the headquarters building in Washington, U.S., September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File Photo
Economy

IMF approves $4.7 billion loan for Bangladesh, calls for ambitious reforms

4
Fund cut as Dhaka's fast-track transit projects on slow spending lane
Infrastructure

Fund cut as Dhaka's fast-track transit projects on slow spending lane

5
Photo: Collected
Court

Japanese mother gets guardianship of daughters, free to leave country

6
Belal Ahmed new acting chairman of SIBL
Banking

Belal Ahmed new acting chairman of SIBL

EMAIL US
[email protected]
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2023
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - [email protected]

For advertisement- [email protected]