Illutration: Liu Rui/GT

The 2024 NATO Summit kicked off in Washington on July 9, local time. In addition to NATO members, the US also invited representatives from Australia, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand to participate. The background of this summit is the 75th anniversary of the founding of NATO. In order to demonstrate the continued relevance of this organization that should have disbanded after the Cold War, the US and NATO have boasted about NATO's "glorious history" and "unity" among its member states long before the summit began. It is also reported that they would discuss China's "support for Russia" in "strong language." However, the more exaggerated the performance, the more it reveals the internal and external predicaments NATO faces.

At the opening ceremony of the summit, US President Joe Biden claimed that NATO today is "more powerful than ever." NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also described NATO as "not only the most successful and strongest, but also the longest-lasting Alliance in history." Western public opinion has generally responded negatively to this kind of "optimism." The New York Times mentioned that the White House seeks to "bolster confidence," but as participating leaders arrived in Washington, this confidence "seemed at risk." Some media outlets also said that few are in the mood for a party. Due to the major reshuffle in US and European politics, "it's hard not to wonder how the alliance will look a year from now - whether it will make it to 76 alive and well."

NATO is the product of camp confrontation and group politics, and stands in the opposite of the general global trend as well as the aspiration of the people. No matter how hard it tries to present itself as a "peacekeeping organization," it cannot hide its true nature as a "war machine." NATO's so-called security comes at the expense of the security of other countries; many of the "security anxieties" peddled by NATO are created by the organization itself. We will not speculate on whether NATO "will make it to 76 alive," but it is certain that NATO will not peacefully move into the future. It needs to continuously create more enemies and greater crises to sustain its existence. Not content with dividing Europe, NATO is also seeking to incite conflicts and confrontations in the Asia-Pacific region.

Biden announced that the US will provide "historic assistance" to Ukraine along with its allies, including allocating $1 billion to strengthen Ukraine's air defense system. In addition, an official from the US Department of State said before the summit that "some of China's threats" will be reflected in the communique, which is just clichés. Now, providing assistance to Ukraine, increasing military spending, and hyping up the "China threat" are the three "lifelines" of NATO. NATO relies on these three lifelines to maintain a high level of strategic binding with the US, serving as a tool for the US to confront, control and suppress other countries.

The so-called "success" and "strength" of NATO that the US and the bloc boast about today pose great danger to the world. All forces in the international community that love peace should remain vigilant against this dangerous trend. NATO's continued expansion in Europe and its reach into the Asia-Pacific region aim to infiltrate group politics and confrontational thinking into regional integration and economic globalization. 

If NATO is allowed to group all the world's problems, the entire world will inevitably become factionalized, divided, and confrontational, with the clouds of war becoming denser as NATO's functions strengthen, posing a very real threat.

According to American media reports, most Americans are not interested in the NATO summit in Washington. Not caring is also an attitude that is probably representative in the Western world. The strengthening of NATO comes at the expense of the well-being of people in various countries, including those in the West. Look at Stoltenberg's latest "celebratory" speech, which boasted about how to arm and how to confront, without a single word about how to benefit the lives of ordinary Western people. He also boasted that defense spending accounting for 2 percent of GDP in member countries will become a bottom line in the future, which comes at the expense of social welfare and development resources of Western countries. If used for aid to developing countries, how much hunger and poverty can be solved.

Now the US is shifting most conflicts in the world toward China, and NATO is also following suit to strengthen its competitive stance against China. This not only arouses opposition from countries in the Asia-Pacific region, but also complaints within European states. Viktor Orban, prime minister of Hungary, which holds the current rotating presidency of the EU Council, recently warned in the American magazine Newsweek that if NATO chooses conflict instead of cooperation, and war instead of peace, it will be committing suicide. If NATO continues to rely on its counter-trend approach to sustain existence, especially in pursuit of the bloc's "globalization," its accelerated failure is inevitable.