The first week of April 2022 demonstrated that NATO’s path of confrontation and war passes through Ukraine and Russia to end ultimately at China. On 6 and 7 April, the foreign ministers of NATO member states came together for a summit at the NATO HQ in Brussels. Also attending were representatives from the four countries lining up to join NATO: Ukraine, Georgia, Finland and Sweden. Significantly, government representatives were also present from Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea.
In his presentation to the press conference immediately after the summit, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was clear that the next target for imperialism is China:
‘We agreed that we must further strengthen and sustain our support to Ukraine. So that Ukraine prevails in the face of Russia’s invasion. We agreed that we must support other regional partners under pressure. And we agreed to step up cooperation with our partners in the Asia-Pacific, because the crisis has global ramifications…We have seen that China is unwilling to condemn Russia’s aggression. And Beijing has joined Moscow in questioning the right of nations to choose their own path. This is a serious challenge to us all. And it makes it even more important that we stand together to protect our values.
‘NATO and our Asia-Pacific partners have now agreed to step up our practical and political cooperation in several areas. Including cyber, new technology, and countering disinformation. We will also work more closely together in other areas such as maritime security, climate change, and resilience…Ministers agreed that NATO’s next Strategic Concept (which will be presented in June) … must also take account of how China’s growing influence and coercive policies affect our security.’
The day before the NATO meeting, in an indication of what this new NATO ‘Strategic Concept’ will look like, the US, Britain and Australia agreed to cooperate on the development of hypersonic missiles, counter-hypersonics, and electronic warfare capabilities in the cause of defending a ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’. On the same day the US signed a $95m arms deal with Taiwan.
As the NATO foreign ministers were meeting, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the US is sending an additional $100m in arms to Ukraine. This was, he said, the sixth major arms shipment dispatched to Ukraine since August 2021. Days later, President Biden authorised the sale of a further $800m worth of military support, including helicopters, armoured vehicles and heavy weaponry. More than $3bn has now been pumped into Ukraine since the start of the Biden administration – the equivalent of over half Ukraine’s entire defence budget in 2021. More than $1.7bn has been sent since the start of the Russian invasion. Not to be left out, Britain has announced it is also sending more arms to Ukraine, including armoured vehicles.
On 6 April US President Biden again announced a further intensification in the US’s economic war on Russia declaring, ‘we’re going to further increase Russia’s economic isolation’. New sanctions were announced, targeting Russia’s banks and prohibiting investment in Russia by US citizens. As part of this drive to economically strangle Russia and bring countries into line to support sanctions, the US extended its threats to include India. The Director of the US National Economic Council declared that the consequences of India developing a ‘more explicit strategic alignment’ with Russia would be ‘significant and long-term’. The following day, Russia was suspended from the UN Human Rights Council, the first time a member of the UN Security Council has been suspended from any UN body. The first step for western imperialism is to crush Russia: the next step is to confront China. It threatens the world: we urgently need to build an anti-imperialist movement to challenge it.
Bob Shepherd
