NATO would be a ghost at the feast in Asia-Pacific

This photo taken on April 6, 2022 shows a sculpture and flags at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. [Photo/Xinhua]

This is an editorial from China Daily.

In the guideline policy it issued at its summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, last week, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization again identified China as a "systematic challenge", groundlessly accusing the country of being a "strategic threat" that challenges its security, order and values.

As the transatlantic alliance is becoming an aggressive, expansionist geopolitical tool of Washington, the Joe Biden administration is pushing it inexorably eastward. The United States is seeking to begin setting the stage for the organization in Asia by trying to open a NATO liaison office in Japan and customizing the Individually Tailored Partnership Programme for the so-called "Indo-Pacific Four" — Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea. Leaders of the "IP4", as NATO calls them, were invited to attend the NATO summit in Vilnius last week.

Were it not for the strong opposition of France, the initiative to establish a liaison office of NATO in Japan, which has been jointly agreed by NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, would have advanced to the implementation stage at the Vilnius gathering.

The proposed move, which is temporarily on hold, has raised concerns that NATO's growing footprint in Asia will break the long-term delicate security equilibrium in the continent.

NATO has never hidden its intention of interfering in the Korean Peninsula issue, the Taiwan question and the South China Sea maritime disputes. Its involvement in these hotspot issues will only aggravate the situations and make them even more complicated.

As an external force, NATO will by no means handle these issues in light of what is best for the region as a whole, but try to use them as cracks in which to apply leverage for Washington to intensify its geopolitical games in the Far East. It is a region where Russia and China have their core interests, and other regional countries' prosperity and stability hinges. It is a region where NATO has nothing to lose.

All regional countries should beware the warmongering bloc's attempts to replace the cooperation, communication and unity that have boosted the Asia-Pacific's common development with confrontation, conflict and division.

All regional countries are well aware of the role China has assumed and is playing in promoting regional prosperity and stability. China has made immense contributions to the development of the region and demonstrated through its actions and its provisions of public goods it is striving to build a community with a shared future in the region and beyond. They also know that it is NATO that is busily laying eggs of chaos and conflict in the region and elsewhere.

The Asia-Pacific has common values, good order, sound security and efficient dispute-solving mechanisms. The region has no place or need for NATO.