LATIKA M BOURKE: New NATO boss Mark Rutte praises Donald Trump for standing up to China

NATO’s new boss Mark Rutte has heaped praise on Donald Trump’s stance on China and said that Beijing’s behaviour shows why even deeper cooperation with Australia and other Indo-Pacific partners is crucial to preserving global security.

He announced that the defence ministers of Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea were all participating in their first defence ministers meeting later this month.

It is an extension of NATO’s outreach to the so-called Indo-Pacific 4 (IP4) nations, whose leaders have all been formally invited to the last three annual NATO summits, the last of which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese boycotted, instead sending his deputy, Richard Marles.

In his first remarks since taking over the job from Jens Stoltenberg, who headed the organisation for a decade, former Dutch PM Mr Rutte said China had become a “decisive enabler” of the war in Ukraine and this was why he was so happy that the Indo-Pacific defence ministers would join their European counterparts at NATO headquarters in Brussels for the first time in mid-October.

“Why is this crucial? Because Russia gets support from North Korea, from Iran, but also from China,” he said.

“There are also other issues at stake in the Indo-Pacific, and that is why we need to strengthen our ties with our Indo-Pacific partners.

“And we also have to discuss to get more and more meat to the bone.

“I’m not going now to go into what that particularly might be, because I want also to discuss this with the defence ministers and with the leaders.”

Kurt Volker, former US Ambassador to NATO, told The Nightly that it was vital the IP4 was part of NATO’s security infrastructure.

“The conflicts and challenges we are facing in the world are increasingly linked,” he said.

“North Korea and Iran are aiding Russia.

“How Russia’s war on Ukraine plays out is being watched carefully both by China and by Allies in Asia.

“So it is indeed very important that the IP4 are more and more engaged in exchanging views and coordinating approaches with NATO countries.”

Mr Rutte was prime minister of the Netherlands in 2014, when flight MH17 was downed over eastern Ukraine in 2014.

The flight departed Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport with 193 Dutch nationals on board, 43 Malaysians, 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians and 10 Britons. All died and Mr Rutte’s government worked closely with Australia’s in trying to seek justice for the families of those murdered.

He said the downing of that flight was a reminder that “the conflict in Ukraine is not contained to the frontlines.”

Western officials say Russia is giving Iran, China and North Korea help with their missile and nuclear programs in return for their supply of drones, munitions and, in China’s case, dual-use goods.

Mr Rutte said he had questioned the Chinese leadership during his vist in mid-March about the CCP’s support for Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine.

“I said, I don’t understand why, for close friends, as they call me and others here in Europe, you bring us under threat,” he said.

“Why you are supporting Russia, why you are delivering the microelectronics, why you are delivering the raw materials, the sanction circumvention, the dual use goods in general.

“And this has got, this has got to stop, and it has an impact understanding in the world, that’s clear.”

NATO and European officials are nervously awaiting the verdict of the American people in November.

Former President Donald Trump has previously threatened to withdraw the United States from NATO if he is re-elected, complaining that Canada and European member states were not contributing to their fair share of defence spending.

Mr Trump has refrained from repeating the threat but there is general alarm amongst European states that he will force Ukraine to capitulate and negotiate with Russia on Russian terms.

Mr Trump has said he would end the war in 24 hours, although has never stated how he would achieve that in any detail.

Mr Rutte would not be drawn on if the war could be ended immediately but went out of his way to flatter Mr Trump, saying it was thanks to the former president that 23 countries were now spending the required 2 per cent of GDP on defence and were alive to threat that China posed.

“This is a huge thing,” he said.

“I would say he, not only he, but also thanks to him pushing, this has been achieved.

“When he started to talk about China, I believe not everybody was realising the threat that we had to face, and the role it is now playing in Ukraine, for example, and in the Ukraine war.”