Why NATO's Next 'Line Of Defense' Will Be South China Sea

China in the Crosshairs: Why NATO's Next 'Line of Defense' Will be South China Sea

Sputnik News

NATO will soon draw a new "defense line" across the South China Sea, warned Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the 77th UN General Assembly. Chinese and Vietnamese experts shed light on the reasons behind Lavrov's warning in an interview with Sputnik.

"NATO is still dominated by the United States, and its center of gravity shifts in accordance with the US major strategic course," explained Chen Xiangmiao, expert of the China Institute of the South China Sea. 

"The US and the West are turning their strategic focus to the regions close to China with the aim to contain Beijing, because they are worrying about China's growing influence."

Signs of NATO shifting into the Asia-Pacific region have been emerging since 2018 when the UK, Germany and France started to expand their influence there, including in the South China Sea, according to Chen.

The recent tensions over the Taiwan Strait indicated that NATO members are also gradually shifting their focus and are increasingly expressing their own position on this issue, he noted.

In early August, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the island of Taiwan – which is considered an inalienable part of the People's Republic of China by Beijing – despite vocal opposition by the Chinese leadership. Following Pelosi's controversial trip, China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) kicked off unprecedented military drills around the island.

Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to Berlin, Shieh Jhu-Wey, praised what he called "the start of a shift by Germany towards a more assertive stance on China," as quoted by Reuters. Shieh also made a vague hint about improvements in Berlin's attitude to the island of Taiwan.

"What's more, Britain and Germany actually want to turn their military activities in the Indo-Pacific region into a new 'normal'," Chen emphasized. "The United Kingdom sends its destroyers there. Germany has also expressed a desire to have a military presence in the Indo-Pacific region. And while their military forces are not based in the countries surrounding the South China Sea, we understand that they are targeting the tense areas in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait."

In addition, three Anglophone countries have formed the AUKUS, a trilateral security pact between Australia, the UK and the US for the Asia-Pacific region, the Chinese expert said, adding that Britain and other western states are simultaneously building bilateral mechanisms for cooperation in the field of military security with regional players.