Nato seeks to expand partnerships with Indo-Pacific states, US official says
- ‘We should be cooperating … sharing threat perceptions’ with Indo-Pacific allies, says National Security Council official ahead of Nato meetings in Washington
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation plans to expand its pool of partners from the strategically vital Indo-Pacific region, a senior US official suggested while previewing the alliance’s 75th anniversary summit this week in Washington.
“Certainly there are more partners that we have in the Indo-Pacific that are of great value to the Nato alliance. And we will seek to include other partners and other events in the future,” said Michael Carpenter, senior director for Europe at the National Security Council, calling Nato’s Indo-Pacific partners “incredibly important”.
Carpenter, who also serves as a special assistant to US President Joe Biden and coordinates the White House’s national security policies on European affairs, said it was an “important time” to cooperate on issues like cybersecurity, fighting disinformation, and “building up our defence industrial bases” because Nato and its Indo-Pacific allies had a “lot of common interests”.
He added that Nato was “not expanding into the Indo-Pacific” since the alliance’s defence and deterrence capabilities were all located in the Euro-Atlantic regions.
However, he added, “that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be talking”.
“We should be cooperating, talking as much as we can, sharing threat perceptions. Certainly, Russia is a primary threat to Nato allies. But … the PRC has been directly providing support to Russia’s defence industrial base,” he said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
