NATO bulks up for new challenges
Allies outline shifts in strategy to face Russia and China
MADRID — Demonstrating a renewed determination to stand up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, NATO on Wednesday outlined a muscular strategic vision that positions Moscow as the alliance’s primary adversary. For the first time, it also labeled China a strategic “challenge.”
NATO’s new strategic document marks a fundamental shift from the post-Cold War era, when the Atlantic alliance saw Russia as a potential ally and did not focus on China. The move comes as Moscow’s forces continue to hold the upper hand in the fifth month of their grinding war in Ukraine, methodically gaining ground in the east as they reduce civilian areas to rubble.
In a flurry of announcements in Madrid at the alliance’s annual summit, President Joe Biden and other NATO leaders sought to respond to a resurgent, bellicose Russia. Just before publishing the new mission statement, they extended formal membership invitations to Finland and Sweden, paving the way for NATO’s most significant enlargement in more than a decade.
With Turkey having dropped its objections to the Nordic states’ applications Tuesday, the two formerly nonaligned nations would expand NATO’s ranks from 30 member states to 32. Their accession would be a setback for President Vladimir Putin of Russia, who has described the alliance’s growing security footprint near Russian territory as one reason for his invasion of Ukraine in February.
It would also mark a significant accomplishment for Biden, who has struggled politically back home but has staked his reputation abroad on a promise to unite Europe against Russia’s aggression and to focus the world’s attention on the risks of China’s rise.
Biden said the United States
would for the first time station forces permanently on NATO’s eastern flank by deploying an Army garrison headquarters and a field support battalion in Poland, positioning an undisclosed number of U.S. troops for quick action in countries along Russia’s border. The president also said the U.S. would send two additional squadrons of F-35 fighter jets to the United Kingdom and more air defenses and other capabilities to Germany and Italy.
He called the summit one of NATO’s most momentous gatherings and vowed that the group — first assembled in 1949 to secure Europe against the Soviet Union — was committed to “defending every inch” of its members’ territory.
“In a moment when Putin has shattered peace in Europe and attacked the very tenets of the rulesbased order, the United States and our allies — we’re going to step up,” Biden said. “We’re stepping up.”
The president added: “The United States will enhance our force posture in Europe and respond to the changing security environment as well as strengthening our collective security.”
The dry language belied the dramatic shift underway as the U.S. prepares to keep 100,000 troops in Europe for the “foreseeable future,” up from 80,000 before the war in Ukraine began.
NATO also plans to increase the size of its rapid reaction force from 40,000 to 300,000 troops by next year. Although the troops would be based in their home countries, they would be ready to deploy further east, where the alliance will stockpile equipment and ammunition.
While Putin’s invasion has given NATO leaders newfound purpose, it was far from clear that the alliance could help Ukraine turn the tide in a war in which its forces remain badly outnumbered and outgunned. The Russian leader has been far from cowed as his forces use their superior artillery to bombard Ukrainian cities into submission.
In a sign of confidence in the war’s progress and his firm grip on power at home, Putin traveled outside Russia this week for the first time since the war began, visiting former Soviet Union republics Tajikistan on Tuesday and Turkmenistan on Wednesday. But even as he sought to reinforce Russia’s relationships in Central Asia, Putin was also looking to the region as a critical economic partner to help offset the economic sanctions and political isolation imposed by the West.
While Russia’s war against Ukraine has dominated discussions at the NATO summit, China earned a place Wednesday among the Western alliance’s most worrying security concerns.
“China is substantially building up its military forces, including nuclear weapons, bullying its neighbors, threatening Taiwan ... monitoring and controlling its own citizens through advanced technology, and spreading Russian lies and disinformation,” Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said after presenting NATO’s 10-year Strategic Concept.
“China is not our adversary,” Stoltenberg said, “but we must be cleareyed about the serious challenges it represents.”
The strategic document directed its harshest language at Russia, but the mere mention of China was significant; the 2010 document did not discuss China, which now has the world’s second-largest economy and a rapidly growing military, both in numbers and in top-notch technology.