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US, allies have no plan to expand Nato in Indo-Pacific, says No 2 State Department official

  • Disinformation campaigns waged by China and Russia fan misperceptions amid years-long ‘drumbeat of very negative information’, says Kurt Campbell
  • ‘There is no real proposition of some combining force that would integrate countries in the Indo-Pacific,’ he adds

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US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell previously coordinated Indo-Pacific affairs on the National Security Council. Photo: AP
Igor Patrickin Washington
The United States and its European partners have no intention of expanding Nato’s presence in the Indo-Pacific region, a senior Biden administration official said on Monday, claiming Russian and Chinese disinformation campaigns were behind such reports.
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US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said all parties involved in dialogues with Nato “understand exactly what the nature of our conversations are about and the limitations of what is being discussed”.

The senior diplomat’s remarks came at the launch event of a report published by the United States Institute of Peace on partnerships between the military bloc and Indo-Pacific countries.

Campbell said Beijing and Moscow were using disinformation campaigns to fan misperceptions of the bloc’s expansion.

“We are not proposing that Nato explore out-of-area contingencies in the Indo-Pacific,” he added. “That is far from what we believe the current dialogues are about.”

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