NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday asked South Korea, where he is visiting, to “intensify” its military aid to Ukraine, suggesting that it revise its policy of not providing military aid. arms to countries at war.
Seoul is the first leg of a visit by Mr. Stoltenberg to Asia, which will also visit Japan, as part of a campaign to strengthen ties with the region’s democratic allies in the face of the Ukrainian conflict and competition. growing in China.
“If we believe in freedom, in democracy, if we don’t want autocracies and totalitarianism to prevail, then they need weapons,” Stoltenberg told the Chey Institute in Seoul on Monday. , where he met with senior South Korean officials on Sunday.
In an interview with AFP in Seoul, the NATO Secretary General acknowledged that South Korea and Japan “provide significant economic support to Ukraine”, but regional allies must recognize that “global security is interconnected”.
If Russian President Vladimir Putin won the war, it would “send a very dangerous message to authoritarian leaders around the world”, he continued, warning of “direct consequences” for security and stability in Asia.
Mr. Stoltenberg pointed out that North Korea “provided rockets and missiles to the Wagner group”, which Pyongyang denied.
State media in Pyongyang slammed Stoltenberg’s visit to Asia on Monday, saying it was another step towards “an extreme security crisis” in the region.
South Korea is an increasingly important arms exporter on a global level and recently signed contracts to sell several hundred tanks to European countries, including Poland, a member of the Atlanticist organization.
But its laws prevent it from selling it to warring nations. Seoul still provided Ukraine with non-lethal equipment and humanitarian aid.
Jens Stoltenberg pointed out that countries like Germany and Norway, whose legislation was similar to that of South Korea on arms exports, have revised their policies to support kyiv.
South Korea opened its first diplomatic mission to NATO last year.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who spoke with Stoltenberg, said he would ‘continue to play a possible role in cooperation with the international community to help the Ukrainian people’, according to a published account. through his office.
Mr. Stoltenberg told AFP that his visit to Seoul and Tokyo was “not for the purpose of expanding NATO to Asia-Pacific”, but that it was crucial that the democratic allies cooperate more.
“North Korea’s nuclear programs are also NATO’s problem, because stability in this region matters to us,” he said.
“And then, of course, China, with its heavy investment in new modern nuclear capabilities, long-range missiles, of course the behavior in the South China Sea, all of that matters to NATO allies as well,” he remarked.
“So this idea that we can have some sort of regional security no longer applies. Security is global. And that’s something that NATO has to take into account as well,” he added.
30/01/2023 12:55:13 – Seoul (AFP) – © 2023 AFP