While the Russia-Ukraine military conflict was going on, the US-led NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) held a three-day summit in Madrid, Spain, from June 28 to 30, 2022. Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand were invited for the first time to attend the Summit. This is really an effort for expansion of NATO to the Asia-Pacific region. The NATO military alliance had already been a menace to peace in Europe and now its expansion to Asia would endanger the peace and security in Asian region. Through its eastward expansion, Asia-Pacific countries were pitted against China, creating divisions and rivalries among Asian nations.
In a clever and deceitful way, the US utilized the opportunity provided by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict to further expand NATO beyond its traditional borders and globalize it. It is an obvious historical fact that NATO had all along been the important strategic instrument to establish the global hegemony of the US. The US used NATO as a tool to control Europe and now the US is trying to design the security order in Asia, according to its hegemonic interests.
It is a fact that NATO was founded with a declared goal of responding to the so-called threat posed by the erstwhile Soviet Union and to prevent the nationalist militarism in Europe. But, now, the US is moving ahead to create an “Asian NATO.” In spite of formal denials by the US authorities, the document, called “NATO’s Strategic Concept” released in the Summit, clearly showed the real intention of the US. This document declared NATO as “indispensable,” defending its continued existence and committed to upgrade its defense plans and deploy “more forces at high readinesses” and assign “specific forces” with “prepositioned equipment” to defend “specific allies.” The location of such forces was towards the east of the Alliance, the borders of Russia.
The document focused on the “threats” posed by China. The reality was that China did not present any tangible military threat. China had only a single military base abroad and never participated in a military conflict for more than four decades. The US, under the pretext of “China threat,” is striving to strengthen its global domination and tries to boost the capital accumulation of their big corporate in the US military industry.
From its emergence from World War II period, NATO has proved, beyond doubt, that it was a military alliance led by the US that threatened global security through its coercive and expansionist policies and actions. It was believed that the Cold War had come to an end after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. But, NATO added 14 more members from 1999 to 2020. Some of the new members were a part of the old Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.NATO further expanded by bringing Finland and Sweden. Russia considered these expansionary measures as a major threat to its security.
NATO’s military operations in Europe and in the Middle East have done great damage. NATO’s current moves to involve Asia-Pacific countries would do further damage in Asian region. Quite often, NATO had stated that it was only a regional alliance and that it never aspired for a geopolitical expansion. Contrary to these assertions, the US conducted many military exercises in the Asia-Pacific region creating tensions in the region and held provocative maritime drills near China’s waters. By this way, many Asia-Pacific nations had already been drawn into the fold of US-led strategic-military alliances in the region like the Quad (The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue between Australia, India, Japan and the US), AUKUS (trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the US), etc. The process of forming an “Asian NATO” has been accelerated through the participation of Asian countries at the Madrid summit, further fueling the fears of a confrontationist West to encircle China. The outcome will be the return of the cold war-era and intensified bloc confrontation, destroying the peace and stability of the Asian region.
Many US allies in Asia do not learn lessons from the past. In 1954, the US, France, UK, New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, Thailand and Pakistan formed the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).The US believed Southeast Asia was important to contain the USSR. SEATO was also used to justify US war on Vietnam. Pakistan and France did not support the US intervention in Vietnam, and pulled away from SEATO by the 1970s.The Vietnam War ended in 1975, and SEATO was disbanded in 1977. Similarly, Central Treaty Organization (CENTO), security organization was formed in 1955, composed of Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, the UK and the US, with the goal of containment of the USSR. It collapsed in 1979, due to withdrawal of many members, since they could not cope with the hegemonic interests of the US. The experience showed that the US military alliances had been detrimental to the peace and prosperity of the Asian nations.
The economic consequence of forming an Asian NATO is also of serious concern for the global working people. The US notes on NATO projected 2022 as “the eighth consecutive year of increased defense spending by non-US Allies.” Many US allies are now spending above NATO’s benchmark of 2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).The so-called “NATO Innovation Fund” was intended to further enhance the defense capabilities by developing a “360-degree approach, across the land, air, maritime, cyber, and space domains.” So, the “global NATO,” if enacted through the increased military spending, would ruin the economies of poor and developing countries. They could not use their economic resources to improve the conditions of majority of the people living in their countries who are already suffering from high rates of inflation, food scarcity, unemployment, poverty and hunger. The working people and those wishing for global peace should resist the expansion of the US-led NATO and its destructive efforts for militarizing the world.
N. Gunasekaran is a political activist and writer based in Chennai, India.
From The Progressive Populist, August 15, 2022
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