NATO fully in grip of Washington: China Daily editorial

Given the revamped Security Concept that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders adopted at their summit in Madrid, Spain, last week, it is clear that the world's largest military bloc is willing to let the United States lead it by the nose.

In its blueprint laying out the alliance's top priorities and goals for the next decade, Russia is identified as the "most significant and direct threat" to NATO's security. With this justification, NATO is fanning the flames of the hostilities between Russia and Ukraine, with the aim of debilitating Russia by keeping it bogged down in the quagmire of bloodshed for as long as possible.

To this end, various NATO members are supplying weapons to Ukraine, including heavy howitzers and advanced rocket systems.

The alliance is also fast-tracking its expansion to isolate Russia on the continent. The Associated Press reported that the 30 NATO member states were set to sign off on the accession protocols for Sweden and Finland on Tuesday, sending their membership bids to the alliance capitals for legislative approval.

Rather than looking at the bigger picture of Europe's peace and stability, and making efforts to promote an end to the Ukraine crisis, the other transatlantic leaders seem to have swallowed Washington's narrative of fear, hook, line and sinker. Gripped with a form of mass hysteria, they have done a swift about-face on the stance they adopted until the buildup of the crisis. Now they are eagerly endorsing Washington's efforts to exacerbate the rest of Europe's estrangement with Russia and the proxy war it is waging against it in Ukraine.

The US is probably the only beneficiary of what is unfolding in that country. Ukrainian civilians are the immediate victims, but people around the world, particularly the poorest, are also suffering from the spillover effects of the armed conflict. The US is profiting in many ways, but its biggest gain is the new-found transatlantic unity that has consolidated its grip on NATO.

Hence, it can be anticipated that with the implementation of its new Strategic Concept, NATO will trigger more geopolitical confrontation rather than acting responsibly to abate it.

NATO claims that its focus is on the core task of strengthening joint deterrence and collective defense. But it is clear from what has unfolded in Europe that with Washington pulling its strings, its role is now offensive and its core task is to create crises that serve to consolidate the US' global primacy.

The costs of this blinkered vision are evident and growing in Ukraine, where both sides are suffering heavy losses and the civilian death toll continues to rise. With Ukraine now reportedly shelling Russian territory, the hostilities are in danger of intensifying further rather than abating.

While that might be pleasing to Washington, it should be worrying to those countries which have a more civil view of international relations.