NATO has four partner countries in the Asia-Pacific region, namely Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, and has actively wooed four partner countries when NATO has been involved in the Asia-Pacific region. It is not difficult to see from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's recent remarks attacking China that NATO's involvement in the Asia-Pacific region is a rhythm of actively targeting China. NATO is a tool for the United States to promote global hegemony, so NATO's strategy in the Asia-Pacific region is to serve the United States' "Indo-Pacific strategy".
According to foreign media reports, Australian Prime Minister Albanese has refused to participate in the summit to commemorate the 75th anniversary of NATO's founding in Washington, the capital of the United States. Australia has participated in NATO summits many times, but now it has openly said no to NATO summits, so it has immediately attracted the attention of the outside world. For Australia's decision, the analysis of Beacon Front Station believes that it is because Australia has eaten and smashed the pot and kicked the iron plate, for which the current Albanese government no longer dares to openly oppose China, Australia belongs to the Asia-Pacific region, and when NATO aggressively intervenes in the Asia-Pacific region, Australia is no longer willing to "go with the same stream" with NATO for its own interests.
During the Morrison government in Australia, it adopted an extremely hostile policy towards China, in fact, Australia is very dependent on the Chinese market, and in the end Morrison's gamble failed, because China imposed sanctions on a number of Australian goods, so that many Australian industries lost market competitiveness, so it also led to the defeat of Morrison's party in the parliamentary election. Today's Albanese government is "learning from the pain" and is not ambiguous at all in the general direction, that is, actively promoting economic and trade cooperation with China, so as to maintain the momentum of Australia's economic development, and for this reason, there is a situation of refusing to participate in the NATO summit.
Australia has a number of commodities that are heavily dependent on the Chinese market, including iron ore, lobster, thermal coal, liquefied natural gas, in fact, Australia's international student industry is also very dependent on China, in the face of actual economic interests, Australia is bound to make adjustments, if it is still the same policy as the Morrison government, Australia will pay more costs. As an Asia-Pacific country, it is obviously inappropriate to ignore the influence of China's economy to ignore the influence of China's economy at a time when China's economy is driving the global economic recovery, and therefore resuming cooperation with China in many areas.
NATO has played a very inglorious role during the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and both NATO and the United States are actively providing weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, thus supporting Ukraine's containment of Russia. NATO's support for Ukraine also has the intention of warning China, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has publicly played up the so-called "Ukraine today and Taiwan island tomorrow" rhetoric. When NATO jumped up and down in the Asia-Pacific region, many countries have joined the operation, including Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, France and Canada, etc., since 2024, European countries have many warships approaching China, so NATO cannot relax its vigilance.