THE NATO summit meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, registered a new level of aggressiveness of the western military alliance led by the United States. Though the central issue of the summit was the war in Ukraine, the declaration of the summit goes much beyond and expresses its interests in other parts of the world outside Europe and makes clear its intent to pursue global domination.

As in the Madrid summit declaration last year, the document talks of a “360-degree approach” which relates to security threats in land, air, maritime and cyberspace domains. 

As far as the Ukraine conflict is concerned, the tone is bellicose with no mention whatsoever of any prospects for peace negotiations. It demands that a pre-condition for peace is “Russia’s complete and unconditional withdrawal” from all Ukraine territories.  The summit committed in a separate agreement to large-scale increase in supplies of arms and equipment to Ukraine.

As for President Zelenskyy’s demand for immediate NATO membership of Ukraine, the NATO leaders did not accede to the demand.  This was for tactical reasons as Ukrainian membership of NATO would trigger Article 5 of the NATO treaty, which would draw the United States and other NATO partners directly into the war with Russia.  The declaration assures that Ukraine is now virtually part of the NATO alliance and says, “Ukraine has become increasingly interoperable and politically integrated with the Alliance”.  The United States wanted a situation where Ukraine keeps fighting and bearing the brunt of the war destruction and casualties while sustaining its fight with the help of sophisticated and advanced weaponry provided by the NATO countries. 

The NATO summit saw Finland joining as a new member and the accession of Sweden to the treaty being cleared after Turkey withdrew its objection. With the joining of these two countries, the land border with Russia has more than doubled.  The NATO summit also approved a document setting out details of troops and weapons’ deployment throughout eastern Europe and its plan to increase NATO’s rapid reaction force from 40,000 to 300,000 soldiers. Thus, the encirclement of Russia with NATO troops on its borders has rapidly expanded.

It is this eastward expansion of NATO, which was the source of the conflict in Ukraine in the first place.  The United States and western powers had reneged on their promise not to expand NATO eastwards after the unification of Germany.  

The Vilnius declaration talks of its strategic interests in every part of the globe, including the Middle East, Africa and the Indo-Pacific region, thus betraying its global plan for hegemony.

The other key focus of the declaration is on China.  China is accused of using “a broad range of political, economic and military tools to increase its global footprint and project power”.  It is accused of damaging the alliance’s security with “malicious hybrid and cyber operations” and trying to control key technological sectors, critical infrastructure, strategic materials and supply change.  China is charged with violating the “rules-based international order” – a reference to the mechanisms which were established after the Second World War, to maintain US hegemony over the world.

It is this targeting of China which saw the participation of the Quad and AUKUS countries’ political leaders at the Vilnius summit.  The prime ministers of Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the president of South Korea attended the summit.  The United States hopes to create a NATO in the east to counter and isolate China. 

India was not a participant in the summit even though it is a member of the Quad.  Since the Vilnius summit was to deal primarily with the Ukraine conflict and Russia, India could not have attended such a meeting given its neutral position. However, the NATO summit projecting the western alliance’s Indo-Pacific strategy is something that India has already come fully on board. 

The NATO summit marks the growing militarisation and aggressiveness of the United States and its allies.  Both Germany and Japan which had been demilitarised after the Second World War have now embarked upon the path of rearmament and building up military power.  President Biden would like the war in Ukraine to be prolonged even through the much-vaunted counter-offensive of the Ukrainian armed forces has not made any headway. A prolonged war suits the US quest to consolidate its hegemony over Europe and to rally them in the ensuing struggle with China. It is in this context that the Modi government is seen more and more to be acquiescing in the United States’ aggressive plans. 

(July 19, 2023)