Washington -

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is an international military organization established in 1949 between the countries of Western Europe and North America bordering the Atlantic Ocean, to counter the Soviet threat to Europe with the onset of the Cold War.

NATO constitutes a system of collective defense, in which member states agree to mutual defense in response to any attack by outside parties.

Members agreed that an armed attack on any of them would be considered an attack on all of them.

Accordingly, they agreed that in the event of an armed attack, any of them may take whatever measures it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, and the alliance currently includes 30 countries.

Since its inception, NATO aimed to confront the Soviet threat until the latter collapsed in 1991, and then Russia became the main target for the alliance's existence and continuity.


China is a new threat

At the conclusion of the NATO Summit last June, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg emphasized that "China's stated ambitions and continued behavior constitute a challenge to the foundations of the international system, and that this represents a dimension and a serious challenge to NATO."

Beijing's response was not delayed, as it was quick to accuse NATO of "following the mentality of the Cold War and the policy of the bloc."

Many commentators link the recent American steps, represented in declaring the tripartite alliance with Britain and Australia “AUKUS” and the huge submarine deal associated with it, and then holding the QUAD summit at the White House in the presence of the leaders of Japan, India and Australia, with its desire to find A broad united front to confront the growing and accelerating Chinese threats.

Today, American efforts to form a new official alliance of the major democracies bordering the Pacific and Indian Oceans to confront China are taking a step forward in the White House, where today, Friday, the heads of the Quartet countries will meet, in the first summit in which they will participate themselves, after a similar summit that brought them together virtually 6 months ago. .

Richard Russo, an expert on Asian affairs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, considers that there is a link between the timing of the establishment of the Tripartite Security Initiative and the holding of the Quartet Summit, as Washington and its allies are aware of the danger of China's continuous movements throughout Asia, which they consider destabilizing in the region.

Speaking to Al-Jazeera Net, Rousseau points out that "the common concerns about the loss of freedom and sovereignty, in the South China Sea region, are forcing like-minded countries to join hands."

He adds that the idea of ​​the "Quadruple Security Dialogue" came from former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and his desire to create an alliance that balances relations with the rising power of China.

Some commentators see Chinese President Xi Jinping's policies as creating tensions with the three countries.

Beijing has adopted violence against Indian forces in the Himalayas, killing 20 of them months ago, at a time when it has doubled military and paramilitary operations around the waters and islands of southern Japan, and Beijing has also participated in a relentless ban against Australia's exports of everything from wine to Charcoal because of the Australian government's criticism of China's human rights violations.

Australia and India hesitated at first, and warned against the idea of ​​antagonizing Beijing, but the formula of the Quadruple Alliance has become appropriate to confront the hostile policies of China, after the deterioration of the two countries' relations with it in recent years.


strategic guidance document

And the administration of US President Joe Biden issued at the beginning of last March the document "Interim Strategic Guidance for the National Security Strategy", which includes the directions of the new administration for national security agencies so that they can work on facing global challenges, and China was mentioned 15 times in the document, which did not exceed 20 pages of Small size.

The document noted the need for the United States to prepare for the dangers of China, saying, "We must also be prepared for the fact that the distribution of power around the world is changing, creating new threats."

She said China in particular is rapidly becoming more resolute and the only competitor capable of combining economic, diplomatic, military and technological might, and challenging the open and stable international order.

Joshua Kurlanczyk, an expert on US-China relations at the Council on Foreign Relations, agrees that the Biden administration is adopting tough policies toward China.

He points out, in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net, that "despite the unprecedented high degree of polarization in the American political system, there is a good amount of consensus between Democrats and Republicans on the need to confront China's policies."


Beijing upset

Beijing is alarmed by these US efforts. In a speech last January, the Chinese president warned that Washington's attempts to rally the world against his country risked sparking a "new cold war".

For his part, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd gave an assessment last month in "Foreign Affairs", saying, "The Quartet presents a unique problem for China's strategy because it aims to unite a multilateral coalition of resistance throughout the Indo-Pacific and possibly beyond."

"For the Chinese president, the critical question is whether the Quartet will evolve into a large, cohesive, and inclusive enough to effectively balance against China, thereby undermining any sense that its hegemony, in Asia or globally, is inevitable," Rudd added.

Despite promoting the Quartet, officials in the Biden administration have sought to avoid publicly provocative rhetoric about the initiative.

A White House statement announcing a four-way leaders' summit did not mention China.

In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly earlier this week, Biden also avoided a direct attack on China, saying, "We are not seeking a new Cold War or a world divided into rigid blocs."