China's Mediterranean Presence Is an Opportunity for NATO

(Washington, DC) At its Wales summit in September, NATO will focus on its future. But while the Ukraine crisis has refocused the alliance on collective defense and its immediate neighborhood, its international partnerships and cooperative security with rising powers will also become more relevant in an age of globalization, emerging non-traditional security challenges, and declining Western defense budgets. This is especially important given China's rise as a global actor and its growing presence in the Mediterranean and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region after the Arab Spring.

It was at the EU-U.S. Summit in November 2011 that the transatlantic partners initially discussed the idea of a joint pivot to Asia and agreed to increase their dialogue and coordination on Asia-Pacific issues. However, in view of declining defense budgets, many European countries saw Asia as a region too far, preferring a division of labor to focus on territorial defense and Europe's own backyard. The countries of southern Europe, especially, feared destabilizing spillovers from developments in North Africa, such as mass migration and terrorism, as well as energy and maritime disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean between Turkey, Cyprus, and Greece.

This division of labor is gradually emerging, with the MENA region becoming a greater European concern, and responsibility for Asia falling primarily to the United States. But this raises practical questions over whether Europe can secure its neighborhood without U.S. support. In the Libyan campaign, European allies relied on U.S. capabilities such as aerial refueling and ran quickly through their munitions. Moreover, such a division risks weakening the transatlantic bond over time. As such, China's growing footprint in the Mediterranean presents both a challenge and an opportunity for the United States and Europe to constructively engage China, and together form a common strategy for post-Arab Spring reconstruction.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen would like the alliance to engage China because NATO operates with United Nations mandates, and China is the only permanent UN Security Council member with which it has no formal mechanism for engagement and consultation. NATO's new strategic narrative would need to account for China's entry into NATO's neighborhood, and focus on ways to engage China for cooperative security and crisis management so as to stabilize the MENA region.
For Beijing, the MENA region is primarily important as a source for energy resources to feed China's growing economy. It is also an export hub for Europe and Africa and a forward front for protecting China's "One China Policy" and combating terrorism and East Turkistan separatist forces. After losing over $20 billion in investments and evacuating 36,000 Chinese nationals from Libya, Beijing is concerned about another scenario of that nature. China also fears that the new Islamist regimes in the Arab Mediterranean countries will be more supportive of Uyghur separatists in Xinjiang and deny Beijing's access to their energy supplies. Thus Beijing will increasingly exercise its diplomatic and military power to protect these far-flung interests, and already China is developing its long-range naval logistic capability.

To this end, China's recent entry into Mediterranean security requires a readjustment of sensitive regional balances as well as the need for defense planners in the U.S. European, Central, and African Commands to incorporate China into their strategic calculus. China's increasing economic and maritime footprint, especially in the eastern Mediterranean, could benefit cooperation on non-traditional security challenges such as counterterrorism, anti-piracy, crisis management, and arresting weapons of mass destruction proliferation. Maritime security is another issue for cooperation given China's interest in Israeli and Cypriot gas, as well as counterterrorism against al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which attacked Chinese interests in Algeria in 2009. In Syria, China has concerns about Uyghur jihadists linked with al Qaeda.

With almost 1 million citizens in Middle East and Africa facing threats of piracy and kidnappings, China also has an interest in crisis management and emergency response. Moreover, NATO engaging China would help keep the United States firmly anchored in the Mediterranean region despite the Asia pivot, and reassure allies and NATO partners in the Mediterranean Dialogue and Istanbul Cooperation Initiative that the United States is not leaving the region.

China's expanding overseas economic interests, with commensurate maritime power projection capabilities across the Indian Ocean littoral and the Mediterranean, present a timely opportunity for Beijing to help burden-sharing in providing global public goods, especially in the maritime commons. If the transatlantic community can succeed in working with China in MENA on emerging security challenges, the United States and its allies can export important lessons to the Western Pacific in the hope of also nurturing cooperative security in China's own neighborhood.

Christina Lin is a fellow at the Transatlantic Academy, an initiative of the German Marshall Fund of the United States in Washington, DC, and a fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University.
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2 Comments
Ukraine and the EU: Ukraine the Victims of the Soviets & Now the Victim of organized crime. After the Second World War, we would expect that the Participation of Germany in the World Stage would be more of active role in preserving the peace and world order. It is to me alarming that the Chancellor of Germany - Angela Dorothea Merkel, as well as the European Central Government’s, in exchange for fast cheap energy would rather allowed a bullied Dictator like Vladimir Putin, violated International laws, invaded Ukraine, killed Innocents Ukrainians and with a gang of Russians organized thugs divided an European Nation, which had cried for help to the west. Vladimir Putin, who is disguising himself as an Elected President, will stop at NO sanctions or any threats. Because reviewing the past of Vladimir Putin is to see the Present element which he is the same THUG of Saint Petersburg, Russian of the 1990s. It is not a secret that Vladimir Putin, has been in Jailed for criminal acts and was just another Soviet officer with serious emotional and Psychological impotence. It is Sad that Germany Chancellor of Germany - Angela Dorothea Merkel, do not take a leadership roll in imposing more serious and defining sanctions against her Friend Vladimir Putin. It is Sad that the USA and Nato as of today have failed to protect Ukraine territorial integrities. The Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances is a political agreement signed in Budapest, Hungary on 5 December 1994, providing security assurances by its signatories relating to Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The Memorandum was originally signed by three nuclear powers, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom. China and France gave somewhat weaker individual assurances in separate documents.[1] The memorandum included security assurances against threats or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine as well as those of Belarus and Kazakhstan. As a result Ukraine gave up the world's third largest nuclear weapons stockpile between 1994 and 1996.[2][3] Following the 2014 Crimean crisis, the U.S.,[4][5] Canada[6] and the U.K.[7] all separately stated that Russian involvement is in breach of its obligations to Ukraine under the Budapest Memorandum, and in clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity. I asked myself, Is 30% of Germany dependency on Russian energy worth more than the lives of those that had died and the thousands of lives of those that will be lost in Ukraine by the Vladimir Putin Regime? Chancellor of Germany - Angela Dorothea Merkel, silence is equivalence to the death of over 600's if not thousands of Ukrainians... The European Union, is the Sole responsible for all of those deaths in the unstoppable civil war in Ukraine. Because the European Union TOY, play and was never serious on helping and integrating Ukraine in to a Modern and Western European Nations. The full responsibilities of all atrocities in Ukraine, falls under the cradle of The European Union. There are many solutions that can be implemented to resolve these crises. One of which is to send real peace Keeper from the United Nation, the E.U. And the USA. The Civilized world, need to displayed now to the frustrated dictator Vladimir Putin, that we will not allow him to play with the new world order and that Russia is solemnly an energy producing economy with a few Nuclear war head that can just go off right where they are now stored. Ukraine needs immediate military support as Ukrainians are tired of EU and the World vague sympathy’s... Vladimir Putin is nothing more than a common gangster ruling a country of hard working and honorable Russians…. The Russian Army, will never fight a war of lies. The Russian Army, will never last more than six months in battle against professional soldiers. It is just my Opinion Ray Baez
Ukraine and the EU: Ukraine the Victims of the Soviets & Now the Victim of organized crime. After the Second World War, we would expect that the Participation of Germany in the World Stage would be more of active role in preserving the peace and world order. It is to me alarming that the Chancellor of Germany - Angela Dorothea Merkel, as well as the European Central Government’s, in exchange for fast cheap energy would rather allowed a bullied Dictator like Vladimir Putin, violated International laws, invaded Ukraine, killed Innocents Ukrainians and with a gang of Russians organized thugs divided an European Nation, which had cried for help to the west. Vladimir Putin, who is disguising himself as an Elected President, will stop at NO sanctions or any threats. Because reviewing the past of Vladimir Putin is to see the Present element which he is the same THUG of Saint Petersburg, Russian of the 1990s. It is not a secret that Vladimir Putin, has been in Jailed for criminal acts and was just another Soviet officer with serious emotional and Psychological impotence. It is Sad that Germany Chancellor of Germany - Angela Dorothea Merkel, do not take a leadership roll in imposing more serious and defining sanctions against her Friend Vladimir Putin. It is Sad that the USA and Nato as of today have failed to protect Ukraine territorial integrities. The Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances is a political agreement signed in Budapest, Hungary on 5 December 1994, providing security assurances by its signatories relating to Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The Memorandum was originally signed by three nuclear powers, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom. China and France gave somewhat weaker individual assurances in separate documents.[1] The memorandum included security assurances against threats or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine as well as those of Belarus and Kazakhstan. As a result Ukraine gave up the world's third largest nuclear weapons stockpile between 1994 and 1996.[2][3] Following the 2014 Crimean crisis, the U.S.,[4][5] Canada[6] and the U.K.[7] all separately stated that Russian involvement is in breach of its obligations to Ukraine under the Budapest Memorandum, and in clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity. I asked myself, Is 30% of Germany dependency on Russian energy worth more than the lives of those that had died and the thousands of lives of those that will be lost in Ukraine by the Vladimir Putin Regime? Chancellor of Germany - Angela Dorothea Merkel, silence is equivalence to the death of over 600's if not thousands of Ukrainians... The European Union, is the Sole responsible for all of those deaths in the unstoppable civil war in Ukraine. Because the European Union TOY, play and was never serious on helping and integrating Ukraine in to a Modern and Western European Nations. The full responsibilities of all atrocities in Ukraine, falls under the cradle of The European Union. There are many solutions that can be implemented to resolve these crises. One of which is to send real peace Keeper from the United Nation, the E.U. And the USA. The Civilized world, need to displayed now to the frustrated dictator Vladimir Putin, that we will not allow him to play with the new world order and that Russia is solemnly an energy producing economy with a few Nuclear war head that can just go off right where they are now stored. Ukraine needs immediate military support as Ukrainians are tired of EU and the World vague sympathy’s... Vladimir Putin is nothing more than a common gangster ruling a country of hard working and honorable Russians…. The Russian Army, will never fight a war of lies. The Russian Army, will never last more than six months in battle against professional soldiers. It is just my Opinion Ray Baez

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