NATO chief claims Russia would target Europe if China attacks Taiwan

NATO chief Mark Rutte warned on Wednesday that China and Russia current rising threats to the transatlantic alliance, confirming that NATO is getting ready for a potential full-scale Russian assault on alliance territory within the coming years.

“Xi Jinping, the president of China, before he would attack Taiwan, he will first make a call into Moscow to ask (Russian President) Putin to keep us busy in this part of Europe,” Rutte instructed reporters at a news convention with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin.

“China is rapidly building up its armed forces. They have now more ships sailing than the US. They will have another 100 ships sailing by 2030. They have now 1,000 nuclear warheads. This is not to organize parades in Beijing. This is indeed to use, to make use of this,” he asserted, predicting that China will attempt to by some means take management of Taiwan.

“Our assumption is, based on many discussions we have had, and of course, what we know from our sources is that the risk is increasingly there,” he mentioned.

Rutte argued that the safety threats to NATO from the Indo-Pacific have grown considerably in recent times. He cited North Korea’s energetic participation within the Ukraine battle supporting Russia, China’s provision of dual-use items to Russia and Iran’s sharing of drone know-how with Russian forces.

He speculated that Russia wouldn’t cease in Ukraine and would possible launch an assault on NATO territory inside the subsequent seven years.

“It has been some of your own German, very senior generals, predicting that three, five, seven years from now, Russia might be able to mount a full-scale attack on NATO territory. Three years is today, five years is next week, seven years is next month,” he warned, and mentioned European allies should enhance their protection spending to strengthen deterrence.

Rutte emphasised that NATO allies determined to extend their protection spending targets finally month’s summit to not appease US President Donald Trump, however as a result of they acknowledge the rising menace.

“We are not doing the 5% and the 3.5% core spending to make one person happy. We do this because we know the threat is there. A threat against the US, a threat against Canada, a threat against the European allies. And that is why we need to spend more on defense,” he mentioned.