NATO extends its tentacles to the Pacific

The last few years have formed a political-economic alliance between two great blocs of countries: the so-called West (personified in the United States, Canada and the European Union) and the China-Russia duo. The advance gained dramatic contours with the invasion of the Ukraine by the Russian armed forces, but it also falls into the delicate challenge of Taiwan.

A fact that brings new elements for these geopolitical disputes, which we have already been called by some of the “new Cold War”, was the announcement that Japan intends to open a “link office” with NATO, a powerful military alliance headed by hairs United States and European countries. “We are already in discussion, but no detail has been finalized yet,” said the Japanese Foreign Minister, Yoshimasa Hayashi, in May.

If it materializes, it will be the first time that a link desk will be installed in Asia. It is worth mentioning that NATO is the acronym for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In other words, the military alliance would extend its tentacles beyond its previously determined area of ​​influence.

A close relationship between NATO and Japan has one clear word: China, which is expanding its political, economic and military influence throughout the world. In the last two decades, the financing of infrastructure has intensified in various developing countries in Latin America and Asia, mainly in Africa. It also created new ties with the non-pacific island countries, a region that has been neglected by the United States in recent years.

In parallel, China considerably expanded its war power, including its portfolio of nuclear warheads. It increased its number of aircraft carriers and also of fighters, tanks and other vehicles. Today, it is the second country with the highest annual defense expenses, behind only the United States.

This economic and military influence has increasingly encouraged China to open up or encircle Taiwan, a country that has been seen by Beijing as a mere “rebel province” since 1949. Since then, the two countries have fought for the primacy of being recognized by other countries. as “only China”.

Taiwan obtained the most support from two countries in the 1970s, when a rapprochement between the United States and the Chinese government, as a way of isolating the Soviet Union, made it lose this favoritism. The “only China” became the one from Beijing and not from Taipé.

The Xi Jinping regime has not ruled out a military invasion if it officially declares its independence. In recent years, however, the United States and Europe have expanded trade partnerships with Taiwan, officially recognizing them as the “sole China” by the Beijing regime.

Disputed Territories

As it is not enough, Pequim claims or controls several territories bathed by the so-called South China Sea, including islands that are now part of Japan. These and other factors transform the Pacific region into a pressão panela that needs to be handled with great care.

“China has increased the naval forces close to Japan and it claims the Senkaku Islands, which is a chain of uninhabited islands controlled by the Japanese”, comments the internationalist Rodrigo Reis. “Japan, after all, recently announced plans for its biggest military build-up since World War II.”

Reis admits that the Japanese movement affects the stability of the region, rather than being a clear reflection of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. “The war has repercussions that are far beyond the border in Europe, causing several countries to rethink military and security quests.” He cites as an example or fact that Finland and Sweden, traditionally neutral countries, will seek adherence to NATO.

Leonardo Leão, a specialist in international law, highlights another country that has an important participation in the movement of people in this table. “It is important to point out that all this movement of North Korea with nuclear weapons, in addition to China in the rise of the war, ended up making Japan resume its military program, something that had not been seen since the Second World War.”

The intense carrying out of military exercises in the Pacific by not only China, Russia and North Korea, but also two Western countries that Japan needs to take more effective measures in the geopolitical field. “Japan is positioning itself in the region in the way that it is doing is being closer to Nato, showing that they are South Korea and have strong allies in the West.”

Leão says that the presence of Australia and New Zealand, countries historically aligned with the West, reinforces this cadeia of protection. “It’s more of a quest to show strength.”

The analyst does not credit, however, in an escalation of violence in the same context as what is happening today in Europe, in which Russia responded with an invasion of Ukraine with NATO and the European Union. “Now, despite the historical animosity between Japan and China, it is a region much more stable politically and diplomatically than the relationship that existed between Russia and Ukraine.”