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How real is the possibility of an ‘Asian Nato’?
Cross-regional security cooperation is indeed picking up pace but it’s inaccurate to portray it solely as a Western-driven containment campaign against China.
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Honour guard members carrying Nato member flags during the Nato summit in Washington on July 9.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
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For observers in Beijing and elsewhere who oppose a so-called “Asian Nato”, the summit of Western alliance leaders in Washington between July 9 and 11 provided additional cause for anxiety.
Four Asia-Pacific countries – Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, known as the “AP4” collectively – attended the summit. Senior US officials say they want to “institutionalise” AP4 participation and “grow the connective tissue between US alliances in the Indo-Pacific and in Europe”.
