NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte called North Korea, China and Iran’s support for the war waged by Russia against Ukraine a “terrible fact,” which poses a threat to the transatlantic space.
He gave this assessment of the current situation on Tuesday in Brussels, arriving at the meeting of the EU Council on Foreign Affairs at the level of defense ministers.
“The terrible fact is that four countries are working together. What is the psychology between them – I can’t always assess, but they work together: China helps Russia by bypassing sanctions, supplying dual-use goods, North Korea – with troops and large arms supplies to Russia, and Russia pays for it. The fact that they have to pay with missile technology really poses a threat to all of us because North Korea will become more effective in its deterrence. And then Iran. Russia pays for Iran’s aid with money, and that money helps Iran’s proxies in the Middle East, making it easier for Iran to do what it does in the Middle East and beyond,” Rutte explained.
In view of this, the NATO Secretary General stated that the situation that has developed has a global impact on the “transatlantic, Euro-Atlantic theater, as well as the Indo-Pacific region.” “We are becoming more and more connected because what is happening here now poses a threat to Japan, South Korea and the United States,” he stated.
Rutte noted that the massive attack on Ukraine demonstrated that “it’s not just Russia.” “North Korea is involved, China is involved, Iran is involved. And the fact that they are all working together means that we have to develop a strategy,” the NATO Secretary General is convinced.
