NATO MILITARY ALLIANCE -IMPERATIVES FOR MORE ASSERTIVE NAVAL STANCES IN SOUTH CHINA SEA

 The 'China Threat'  in 2021 is no longer a a pervasive threat felt and confined to Indo Pacific Region only but has transcended the vast geographical land and maritime expanses of Asia to to figure in the threat perceptions of the Euro-centric NATO Military Alliance which was earlier solely focused on the Russian Threat to Europe.

The NATO Headquarters in Brussels in its December 2020 Perspectives Study Report "NATO 2030: United for a New Era" has expressed strategic concern on China's political, strategic and military intentions which NATO now perceives could also impact European security especially on NATO's Southern Flank nations and Eastern Mediterranean .

Some excerpts which highlight NATO's strategic concerns are reproduced as under:

• "The scale of China's power and global reach poses acute challenges to open and democratic countries particularly because of that country's (China) trajectory to authoritarianism and expansion of its territorial ambitions."
• "China has proven its willingness to use force against its neighbors as well as economic coercion and intimidatory diplomacy well beyond the Indo Pacific region."
• "NATO should deepen consultation and cooperation with Indo Pacific partners--Australia, Japan." 
  

 China's inroads into the Middle East, China-Iran Strategic Partnership and strategic projects like Maritime Silk Road and OBOR with economic pretensions as fig-leaves are cited as China's growing global ambitions of concern to NATO.

Major Powers of Europe like France and United Kingdom have already started asserting their naval presence with elevated levels in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean .

These European Powers have in recent months participated in exercises with the QUAD Navies of United States, Japan,India and Australia.

Such policy changes where European countries would kow-ow to China in the last decade have obviously been impelled by concerns of China's not so benign rise and its aggression in the South China Sea.

This is a  welcome expression of the intentions of the United States and Major Powers--all democratic countries-- to join hands to keep the freedom of navigation in international waters and the airspace above  them free from any disruptions by China as displayed in the Indian Ocean.

China for long has got away with its military aggression and expansionism in the South China Sea at the expense of its smaller neighbors like Vietnam and the Philippines. due to United States earlier 'China Hedging' policies.

China understands only one language like all bullies and that is the language of the STRONG and being STOOD UP TO firmly and pushed back.

United States, Japan, India and Australia with a revival and resurgence of the QUAD have sent the appropriate message to China.

With the China Threat being palpably felt by NATO Military Alliance as a strategic concern both for Europe and globally in NATO Perspectives for the decade up to 2030 , strong imperatives exist for NATO Military Alliance for enhanced naval stances in South China Sea.

NATO Navies and the QUAD Navies acting in unison would be an appropriate chastening message of the Free World to a Revisionist Power like China which with its Hard Line muscular policies in Indo Pacific seems to have gone on a wild Hitlerian rampage in recent years.