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View all search resultsExperts call for regional prudence after NATO declare China a strategic challenge
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, United States President Joe Biden and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg attend the round table of a NATO summit in Madrid, Spain June 30. (Reuters/Yves Herman)
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nternational relations analysts have called for caution in Indonesia and the region after NATO declared China a strategic challenge, saying it was only a formal acknowledgment of the ongoing situation in the Indo-Pacific.
The NATO Summit in Madrid late last month for the first time identified China, continents away from the Atlantic Ocean, as posing “systemic competition”.
The organization's 30 members convened for its summit on June 29-30, inviting Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.
Experts in Indonesia have said that the region should remain prudent, arguing that the military alliance would remain preoccupied with Europe despite several NATO members already having their own engagements in the Indo-Pacific.
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) international relations researcher Fitriani said that NATO would probably still focus on Europe due to crises caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
She said that the invitation to Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand for the first time showed that they all shared the same concerns toward China, although not necessarily an extension of a formal invitation to the military alliance.
“If NATO went south [by inviting Australia and New Zealand] or to the Pacific [by inviting South Korea and Japan], then the name of the group would no longer be the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,” Fitriani said on Tuesday.
