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ChinaDiplomacy

China can expect a ‘harder line’ from G7, Nato countries at summits

  • US officials predict Beijing will be named for the first time in the North Atlantic alliance’s policy framework
  • And G7 meeting of the world’s most developed economies is expected to discuss ‘unfair and coercive’ practices by China

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China is expected to loom large in back-to-back summits of world leaders, starting with the G7 in Germany from June 26. Photo: AFP
Kinling Lo
G7 and Nato countries are expected to take a harder line on China following what they called “increasing” economic and security threats in the past year, US officials said ahead of back-to-back leadership meetings kicking off this weekend.
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Senior officials from US President Joe Biden’s administration said discussion on China will loom large in the consecutive summits of the world’s most developed economies.

Biden will first attend the annual meeting of the Group of Seven most developed countries in Germany on Sunday, before heading to Spain for the Nato summit that begins on Wednesday.

The meetings take place against a backdrop of US efforts to bolster alliances and partnerships, taking aim at China in the form of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) – a security pact with Australia, Japan and India – and the introduction of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.

A senior administration official in Washington said China will be identified for the first time in Nato’s new strategic concept – a document that lays out the policy framework over the next decade for the security alliance, that is now expected to expand to a 32-member body with the addition of Finland and Sweden following the war in Ukraine.

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“Russia obviously continues to be the most serious and immediate threat to the alliance. But the strategic concept will also address the multifaceted and longer term challenges posed by the PRC to Euro-Atlantic security,” the official said on Wednesday, referring to the official name of the People’s Republic of China.

“This will be the first time that this document has done that,” the official said, pointing out there was no mention of China at all in the Nato Security Concept last published in 2010.

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