Nato chief says it must build Indo-Pacific ties to meet China’s military challenge

Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte contends that Euro-Atlantic security ‘is all interconnected with what is happening in the Pacific’

The head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization warned on Monday that China’s growing military and its close alignment with Russia, Iran and North Korea meant that Nato should further develop Indo-Pacific partnerships to meet the challenge Beijing posed.

Mark Rutte, Nato’s secretary general, made his remarks at Chatham House in London, coinciding with the US-China ministerial-level trade negotiations in the city.

“What we see at the moment is an enormous build-up in China of their military capabilities,” Rutte, the former prime minister of the Netherlands, said.

He noted that China “already has the world’s largest navy, and this battle force is expected to grow to 435 ships by 2030.