NATO chief says China and Russia could launch simultaneous attacks in chilling warning over all-out war
Nato chief Mark Rutte has argued China and Russia could team up to launch simultaneous attacks across the globe in a chilling warning.
Listen to this article
The Nato Secretary-General argued joint attacks from the Xi Jinping's troops and Vladimir Putin's forces could spark the next global conflict, dragging in western soldiers in an all-out war.
He said China would first go for Taiwan, the self-governed island in the west pacific which Beijing has long threatened to invade.
But Beijing would request that Russia launch an offensive on Nato territory to provide cover. It comes amid concerns Moscow is eyeing up Baltic and former Soviet states including Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
"Let's not be naïve about this," Mr Rutte told The New York Times.
Read more: Israel presses forward with Gaza ceasefire talks despite 'unacceptable' Hamas demands
"If Xi Jinping would attack Taiwan, he would first make sure that he makes a call to his very junior partner in all of this, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, residing in Moscow, and telling him, 'Hey, I'm going to do this, and I need you to to keep them busy in Europe by attacking NATO territory'.
"That is most likely the way this will progress," he said, adding that two things must be done to deter Putin and Xi.
"One is that NATO, collectively, being so strong that the Russians will never do this"
He added: "And second, working together with the Indo-Pacific - something President [Donald] Trump is very much promoting, because we have this close interconnectedness, working together on defence industry, innovation between NATO and the Indo-Pacific."
Mr Rutte warned that Russia is rearming itself at an alarming pace amid its war with Ukraine, prodding "three times as much ammunition in three months as the whole of NATO is doing in a year."
While Mr Rutte said this is unsustainable, he argued Russian collaboration with North Korea, China and Iran in fighting the "unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine" shows the Indo-Pacific and Atlantic are becoming more and more interconnected.
This comes after NATO allies including Donald Trump reaffirmed their 'ironclad commitment' to collective defence after an emergency summit at The Hague in June.
The commitment to collective defence, which Trump had been skeptical about ahead of the summit, came alongside an official commitment from all member states to increase their defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035.
Sir Keir Starmer said it was "the moment to unite, for Europe to make a fundamental shift in its posture", and that the commitment to 5% will make the alliance "stronger, fairer and more lethal than ever".
"This includes military spending as well as vital investments in our security and resilience, like protecting our cyber security and our energy networks," he said.
Starmer said the Nato summit had sent a "decisive message to aggressors".
Notably missing from the communique was a condemnation of Russia's war on Ukraine, or any reference to Ukraine's potential membership into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The alliance has previously said Kyiv was on an "irreversible path" to membership, which Donald Trump - and Russian president Vladimir Putin - strongly oppose.
The only mention of the war comes in the context of spending - the paragraph reads: "Allies reaffirm their enduring sovereign commitments to provide support to Ukraine, whose security contributes to ours, and, to this end, will include direct contributions towards Ukraine's defence and its defence industry when calculating Allies' defence spending."
Nato's secretary general praised the declaration and member states' commitment to raising defence spending to 5%, saying: "This is a significant commitment in response to significant threats to our security.
"This is "all to ensure we can effectively deter aggression and defend ourselves and each other should anyone make the mistake of attacking."
He added: "All allies are united in understanding that we need to step up to stay safe and they are acting on it."