China Could Ask Russia To Attack NATO To Open a Second Front in Europe Before Attacking Taiwan, Alliance Chief Rutte says
China Could Ask Russia To Attack NATO To Open a Second Front in Europe Before Attacking Taiwan, Alliance Chief Rutte says
Mark Rutte voiced a prediction.
Original NYT article (paywalled)
If Chinese leader Xi Jinping decides to attack Taiwan, he could ask Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to start a war in Europe to distract the United States.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said this in an interview with New York Times.
"If Xi Jinping were to attack Taiwan, he would first call his junior partner about it and tell him, 'Hey, I'm going to do this, and I need you to distract them in Europe by attacking NATO territory.' That's probably exactly what will happen," Rutte said.
He noted that this proves once again how interconnected the destinies of Europe, the Atlantic, the Arctic and the Indo-Pacific are.
He said this is why the defense of territories and strategic cooperation between NATO and Indo-Pacific countries should be strengthened.
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What a strange soundbite.
Surely it's not "NATO" that provides any kind of military counterbalance in the Taiwan Strait in any sense of the word? European naval forces aren't really a regional player (and arguably not any kind of player).So I guess what Rutte is really trying to do is to publicly state "I definitely believe a Russian attack on NATO would immediately draw every US aircraft carrier into the Baltic Sea! Would suck for Taiwan, but I defnitely believe in the dependability of all alliance members!" while sweating profusely.
European naval forces aren't really a regional player (and arguably not any kind of player).
Lol what? France, UK, Italy, Spain and Germany all have pretty strong navies. France and UK both have nuclear ballistic missile submarines.
Compared to r*ssia all of them have great modern navies.
Anyway why would navy even matter in this hypothtical situation? r*ssians regretfully aren't regarded enough to attack anyone over sea.
...Because Taiwan is an island?
Europe isn't.
...which is why it wouldn't matter in Europe. That's the point.
Anyway why would navy even matter in this hypothtical situation? r*ssians regretfully aren’t regarded enough to attack anyone over sea.
Maybe there's some kind of misunderstanding here. What's the current non-US-based NATO naval contingent around the China Sea?
Germany has a strong navy? First time i would have heared of that