LATIKA M BOURKE: NATO boss Mark Rutte warns that ‘we cannot be naive’ about China after Pacific missile launch

NATO is “on it”, the Alliance’s boss Mark Rutte has said, when asked about China’s launch of a long-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile in the South Pacific.

Chinese propaganda outlet Xinhua said that the People’s Liberation Army Navy successfully launched a strategic missile carrying a dummy warhead in the Pacific on Monday.

The missile, believed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile, was launched from a single “strategic nuclear submarine”.

Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy is making his debut at the NATO summit this year on behalf of the Australian government.

He described it as a “destabilising event” but said played down drawing a link between the missile launch and the signing on Monday of a defence treaty between Australia and Fiji.

“The timing is more likely to be coincidental, as I said we’ve been tracking their maritime assets for quite some time now so it’s not as if they can teleport from the South China Sea to where they were overnight,” he said in an interview in Anakara, where he arrived on Monday.

China warned Australia ahead of time. But the firing drew sharp criticism across the region, including from Japan and New Zealand.

“We hope relevant countries will not read too much into it,” Mao Ning, China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.

Mr Conroy said he would be raising the missile launch when the Indo-Pacific four ministers meet NATO defence ministers on Tuesday night.

“I’ll be saying that it’s another example of the arms race that we’re seeing in the region and that it’s another example of destabilisation occurring in our region and why we continue to be concerned about peace and security in the Indo-Pacific,” Mr Conroy said.

When questioned by The Nightly, Mr Rutte said NATO was already onto to it.

“I was just texting this afternoon with the Japanese Defence Minister about this latest development. And I think it is evidence of the fact that we cannot be naive about China — you know this,” he said.

“And this is why we have this close cooperation, because these theatres are getting more and more intertwined, connected.

“What happens in the Indo-Pacific is relevant to what is happening in the transatlantic.

“And we see it also in the war with Ukraine, where China, North Korea, and Iran are key enablers of Russia’s unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine.

“So, this again is evidence that we cannot be naive, and I can assure you that we are on it.”

Mr Rutte was speaking to reporters in Ankara, Türkiye, ahead of the NATO summit, where European leaders are bracing for another showdown with US President Donald Trump over defence spending and their lack of support for his war in Iran.

The US has been pausing rotations of troops through Europe and cancelled a sale of Tomahawk missiles to Germany, amid fears that some in the Trump administration want to go further and quit their military presence in Europe altogether.

But Mr Rutte said it was better for the US to say now what they would remove in order to prioritise their competition with China, as NATO knew what American assets they can count on in the future.

“What the US has done, and I think this was important, is assessed again what they can provide to NATO in case of a two-theatre conflict, let’s say a conflict in the Indo-Pacific and in the Euro-Atlantic,” he said.

“It’s not a massive drawdown in terms of what they will provide, but we now know much more exactly what the Americans can provide, and already the Europeans are backfilling.

“It is not sustainable that we ask a country with 350 million people, living eight hours flying from here, to defend against the Russians, with 600 million people living in this part of NATO territory, the richest part of the world, being so overly dependent on the United States.

“So rebalancing that, United States still providing a nuclear umbrella, the United States still providing a crucial conventional support to NATO as a whole, and therefore to the transatlantic security, and therefore, of course, also to their own security.

“We are now creating an Alliance which is sustainable where the US knows it is a fair deal.”

John Hemmings from the Henry Jackson Society said the NATO boss was right to continue drawing the link between aggression by China and Russia.

“The US has pushed hard to delineate responsibility between the two theatres, Europe and the Indo-Pacific. This downplays the possibility of a two-front war where China is actively supporting Russia’s wars against Europe and makes the issue of supply chain dependence all the more vital,” Dr Hemmings said.

Yet the NATO row could be overshadowed entirely by Mr Trump admitting he personally lobbied the head of FIFA Gianni Infantino to overturn a red card issued to star US scorer Folarin Balogun ahead of the match against Belgium.

“I understand sports really well – really well – and that wasn’t a foul. That wasn’t even an infraction. That was two guys running full speed that happened to crash into each other,” Mr Trump said at the White House before departing for Ankara on his new aircraft donated by Qatar.

“He didn’t do anything wrong. He’s our best player or one of our best players and he gave him a red card. I didn’t know what that meant. I didn’t think it meant much. Then I started hearing that that means he can’t play in the next game; at least in the next game. I said, boy, that’s a big – you know, if it happened to another player it would have been unfair – but when they take your best player – or just about, they have some great players – and they say, you can’t play, that’s very unfair.

“It’s one thing to penalise somebody for the game but how do you penalise them for a game that hasn’t been played yet? It’s very unfair. You can’t do that so yes, I asked for a review by FIFA. I spoke to a man who’s highly respected.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio admitted the matter could be raised at NATO.

“I think it was the right decision to reverse it,” he said.

“Maybe we’ll bring it up at NATO tomorrow when we’re there with the Belgians and everybody else.

“But I just hope the match will go on, everyone will be at full strength, and the winner will be the winner. If it’s Belgium – they have a very good team – they’ll move on and they can say they beat the US at full strength at home.”