ISLAMABAD: NATO’s partnership with Pakistan would continue in the days to come as both had a cooperation program that included research and development, said Delogne Charles, NATO envoy to Pakistan.
The NATO envoy while talking to media said that the level of cooperation had diminished following the withdrawal of NATO’s troops from Afghanistan. Frequent talks at the military level did take place between the Treaty and Pakistan.
Delogne Charles talking about the NATO’s opinion regarding China, said China was not an enemy but a challenge for NATO. “China is being seen as a challenge not an enemy”m he continued.
“Chinese policies affect our economy and security. This is something we have to deal with,” he said, without elaborating on it further.
He also said China did not respect some key rules of the international order.
“It continues to expand its military arsenal and there is no transparency in its nuclear stockpile,” he added.
The ambassador also accused China of seeking to invest in NATO member countries to gain control on key technological and industrial sectors, critical infrastructure, strategic materials and supply chains and create strategic dependencies.
He named Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand as the four countries challenging China’s policy and said: “These countries are democracies”.
He added that NATO had decided to set up cooperation mechanism with these countries.
Delogne Charles termed China a dynamic country offering lot of opportunities and said China could be a partner in many spheres including climate change.
Talking about Ukraine, the Belgian ambassador said it was decided at the Vilnius summit that it would be invited to become a member, without setting out a time-frame for it.
He made it clear that it would only happen when certain conditions were met and when the ongoing conflict with Russia was over.
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