Rutte: Xi Jinping will ask Putin to attack NATO if he wants to attack Taiwan

NATO Secretary General Marko Rutte said that if Chinese President Xi Jinping wants to invade Taiwan, he will first ask Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to attack NATO member states in Europe. The official told in an interview with The New York Times.

Rutte said that the situation in the Indo-Pacific region is one of the reasons why the US is interested in protecting its partners in Europe.

"There’s an increasing realization, and let’s not be naive about this: If Xi Jinping would attack Taiwan, he would first make sure that he makes a call to his very junior partner in all of this, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, residing in Moscow, and telling him, "Hey, I’m going to do this, and I need you to keep them busy in Europe by attacking NATO territory." That is most likely the way this will progress," said the NATO Secretary General.

According to him, in order to deter Beijing and Moscow, first, NATO collectively needs to be "so strong" that the Russians would never resort to such an attack.

Second, Rutte added, the Alliance needs to work together with partners in the Indo-Pacific – something that President Donald Trump is "very much promoting".

"Because we have this close interconnectedness, working together on defense industry, innovation between NATO and the Indo-Pacific," said the Alliance Secretary General.

He also said that "there is broad agreement" that the United States is an integral part of the defense of NATO territory.

"That means that it’s not only about defending Europe; it’s about the United States, for the reasons... that the U.S. is not secure if the Atlantic, Europe and the Arctic are not secured ," Rutte explained.

• At the end of June, President Zelenskyy, following a report by the head of the HUR Budanov, said that Ukraine has evidence that Russia is preparing new military operations in Europe.
• Bloomberg, citing unnamed US officials, said that if Putin decides to enter into a military conflict with NATO, he is likely to launch an attack from Lithuania or all three Baltic states at once.