NATO ministers to tackle issues posed by China: Stoltenberg
NATO foreign ministers will reportedly meet in Bucharest, Romania, on November 29-30.
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NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (AP)
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, on Friday, that the alliance's foreign ministers will meet in Bucharest this week on November 29-30 to discuss ways to address the alliance's challenges posed by China.
“NATO Foreign Ministers will also address ways to strengthen our resilience and the challenges posed by China. China is not an adversary, but it is stepping up military modernization, increasing its presence from the Arctic to the Western Balkans, from space to cyberspace, and seeking to control critical infrastructure of NATO allies,” Stoltenberg told journalists.
It is worth noting that Stoltenberg said Monday that Beijing was seeking to tighten its grip over critical infrastructure, supply chains, and the crucial industrial sectors of Western countries.
Meanwhile, Stoltenberg underlined that "authoritarian states" must be prevented from exploiting the West's weaknesses to conduct "subversive" activities.
Germany and China
This comes a day after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his country would not be making the same mistake with China as it did with Russia, stressing that Berlin was already bringing variety to its trade.
The German Chancellor visited China earlier this month, marking the first visit by an EU leader to China since the COVID-19 breakout of 2019, making it also the first time Scholz visits China since he assumed office.
The Chancellor also stated that the importance of his recent visit to China was that both countries condemned the use of nuclear weapons, adding that Germany placed the new $100 billion euro budget into its defense industry after it saw it was vital that the country must build a strong military stock after the Ukraine war.
