China could push Russia to attack a NATO member country, says Alliance chief Rutte

China may encourage Russia to launch an attack on one or more of the 32 NATO member countries, the Alliance’s Secretary General Mark Rutte warned in an interview with The New York Times.

He suggested that if China decides to invade Taiwan, Chinese leader Xi Jinping could ask Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin to distract Europe — for example, by striking NATO territory.

“If Xi Jinping would attack Taiwan, he would first make sure that he makes a call to his very junior partner in all of this, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, residing in Moscow, and telling him, “Hey, I’m going to do this, and I need you to to keep them busy in Europe by attacking NATO territory.” That is most likely the way this will progress,” Rutte said.

To deter both China and Russia, NATO needs to focus on two priorities: strengthening the Alliance so that “the Russians will never do this”, and deepening cooperation with the Indo-Pacific region.

“We have this close interconnectedness, working together on defense industry, innovation between NATO and the Indo-Pacific,” Rutte said.

He said that NATO is now facing a massive geopolitical challenge.

“And that is first of all Russia, which is reconstituting itself at a pace and a speed which is unparalleled in recent history. They are now producing three times as much ammunition in three months as the whole of NATO is doing in a year,” he said.