The NATO military alliance should consider expanding its membership to include countries in the Asia-Pacific region such as Japan and New Zealand, a former NATO supreme allied commander has said.
“NATO should consider recruiting some new members outside its traditional borders,” retired US Navy Admiral James Stavridis wrote in an op-ed for Bloomberg on Monday.
Stavridis served as head of the military alliance from 2009 to 2013. Before that, he served as commander of the U.S. Southern Command from 2006 to 2009, where he oversaw military operations in Latin America.
Expanding NATO membership, Stavridis writes, was a necessary response to ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, the war between Russia and Ukraine, tensions between the United States and China and to the territorial dispute in the South China Sea.
In his opinion piece, Stavridis suggested recruiting Asia-Pacific countries “that share the alliance’s vision of freedom, democracy, freedom and human rights.” This list of potential allies includes countries like Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.
Additionally, Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore could also be involved due to their ties to the United States, Stavridis wrote.
That said, Stavridis acknowledged the difficulties associated with “NATO’s geographic expansion to include a group of Asian democracies.”
In addition to managing “cultural, linguistic and geographic differences,” Stavridis noted that a larger number of members would make it “even more difficult to achieve broad consensus on a given mission.”
“I would say that the challenges and benefits seem roughly balanced, but given the practical and political obstacles, it is probably too early to consider a global NATO,” Stavridis wrote.
“But there is perhaps a middle path, which could involve more formalized relations between the alliance and Asian democracies,” he added, suggesting arrangements such as “clearly articulated security guarantees” and ” joint procurement of advanced weapons systems.
To be sure, NATO has already expanded its outreach efforts to Asia. Since 2022, Japan and South Korea have participated in the annual summits of the military alliance.
Last year, NATO reportedly considered establishing a liaison office in Japan. This project, however, failed following opposition from French President Emmanuel Macron.
The military alliance’s overtures toward Asia appear to have angered countries like China, whose defense ministry has accused NATO of being a “walking war machine.”
“In recent years, NATO has moved closer to the Asia-Pacific region and used the non-existent ‘China threat’ as an excuse to advance confrontation between the blocs, posing a threat to regional security,” he said. said Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Wu Qian about NATO. press conference in January.
NATO officials did not immediately respond to a Business Insider request for comment sent outside normal business hours.
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