Beijing is 'watching closely' if Russia succeeds in Ukraine, NATO says, flagging rising China challenge

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Saturday that China is intimately watching Russia's occurrence successful Ukraine, with the result of Europe's warfare apt to person wide-reaching implications for Beijing's behaviour successful Asia-Pacific.

"Beijing is watching intimately what's going connected successful Ukraine. And if Putin wins there, of course, that volition interaction their decisions connected however to behave successful Asia," Stoltenberg told CNBC's Hadley Gamble.

"What happens successful Europe, successful Ukraine, matters for Asia, and what happens successful Asia matters for Europe," helium said astatine the Munich Security Conference.

Speaking up of the one-year day of Russia's penetration of Ukraine, Stoltenberg said that NATO does not spot China arsenic an "imminent" threat.

However, helium noted that the subject conjugation is stepping up its practice with allies wrong the region, including Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

"We don't spot China arsenic an force oregon immoderate imminent threat. But we measure that the emergence of China, China's increasing economical and subject power, is simply a situation to our security, to our interests, oregon to our values."

He added, "Security is not regional. Security is global."

The comments travel arsenic concerns equine implicit China's increasing subject beingness astir Taiwan. They besides travel the find of a bid of Chinese balloons supra U.S. airspace, which prompted Washington to impeach Beijing of espionage.

Stoltenberg said that the balloons were portion of a signifier of surveillance tactics employed by China to stitchery quality connected NATO allies.

"The world is, this is portion of a signifier we person seen, where China has stepped up their quality activities implicit galore years, utilizing galore antithetic platforms specified arsenic cyber satellites and different types of platforms to spy connected and to stitchery quality from NATO-allied countries, some successful North America, but besides successful Europe," helium added.