NATO Is on the Back Foot in the Indo-Pacific
The recent NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, was watched closely for the outcome of Sweden’s bid for membership—Turkey agreed on the eve of the summit to ask its parliament to approve Sweden’s membership—and the alliance’s response to Ukraine’s formal application to join—NATO maintained that Ukraine would become a member “when allies agree and conditions are met” without setting out a time frame for the country’s entry after the war. In Asia, another aspect of the meeting was scrutinized: how NATO positioned itself on China.
There were three developments ahead of and in Vilnius on this front. First, as with the NATO summit held in Madrid in 2022, NATO extended invitations to four Indo-Pacific countries: Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea.… Seguir leyendo »