{"id":149986,"date":"2025-06-01T17:23:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T17:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/149986\/"},"modified":"2025-06-01T17:23:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T17:23:16","slug":"top-defense-officials-say-ukraine-war-has-blurred-lines-exposing-global-threats-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/149986\/","title":{"rendered":"Top defense officials say Ukraine war has blurred lines, exposing global threats"},"content":{"rendered":"

SINGAPORE (AP) \u2014 China and North Korea\u2019s support for Russia in its war against Ukraine<\/a> has exposed how lines between regions have blurred, and the need for a global approach toward defense, top security officials said Sunday. <\/p>\n

North Korea has sent troops to fight on the front lines in Ukraine, while China has supported Russia economically and technologically while opposing international sanctions. <\/p>\n

Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovil\u0117 \u0160akalien\u0117 told delegates at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia\u2019s premiere defense forum, that if Ukraine were to fall, it would have a ripple effect in Asia and suggested it could embolden China in its territorial claims on Taiwan and virtually the entire South China Sea. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf Russia prevails in Ukraine, it\u2019s not about Europe. It\u2019s not about one region,\u201d she said. \u201cIt will send a very clear signal also to smaller states here in Indo-Pacific that anyone can ignore their borders, that any fabricated excuse can justify invasion.\u201d <\/p>\n

The comments echoed those from French President Emmanuel Macron<\/a> as he opened the conference on Friday advocating for greater European engagement in the Indo-Pacific. <\/p>\n

On Saturday, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth<\/a> suggested European countries should focus their defense efforts in their own region and leave the Indo-Pacific more to the U.S.,<\/a> but \u0160akalien\u0117 said the regions were clearly intertwined. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a secret that when we talk about the main perpetrators in cyber security against Japan it\u2019s China, Russia and North Korea,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we talk about main cyber security perpetrators against Lithuania it\u2019s Russia, China and Belarus \u2014 two out of the three are absolutely the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that \u201cthe convergence of Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea into an increasingly coordinated authoritarian axis,\u201d demands a unified response. Iran has been a key supplier of attack drones to Russia for its war effort. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn this context, the United States\u2019 strategic focus on Indo-Pacific is both justified and necessary, but this is not America\u2019s responsibility alone,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles told reporters on the sidelines that his main takeaway from the three-day conference, hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, was the \u201creal intent in the way in which European countries have engaged\u201d in the debates. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt reflects the sense of connection, interconnectedness … between Indo-Pacific on the one hand and the North Atlantic on the other,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

China sent a lower-level delegation from its National Defense University this year to the conference, but its Foreign Ministry on Sunday responded to comments from Hegseth that Beijing was destabilizing the region and preparing to possibly seize Taiwan by force. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo country in the world deserves to be called a hegemonic power other than the U.S. itself, who is also the primary factor undermining the peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific,\u201d it said, while reiterating its stance that the Taiwan issue was an internal Chinese matter. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. must neve play with fire on this question,\u201d the ministry said. <\/p>\n

Philippines Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr, whose country has been involved in increasingly violent clashes with China<\/a> over competing claims in the South China Sea, scoffed at the idea that the U.S. was the problem. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the Chinese government considers fair and just may stand in stark contrast to the norms and values accepted by the rest of the world, especially the smaller countries,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo envision a China-led international order, we only need to look at how they treat their much smaller neighbors in the South China Sea.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also underscored the international implications of the tensions in the Indo-Pacific, noting that the South China Sea was one of several maritime routes that are \u201carteries of the global economy.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cDisruption in any of these maritime corridors triggers ripple effects across continents, impacting trade flows, military deployments, and diplomatic posture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Singapore\u2019s Defense Minister Chan Chun Sing said China missed an opportunity to have its voice heard by not sending its own defense minister, but it was still incumbent upon others to reach out to Beijing to try and build bridges and prevent misunderstandings. <\/p>\n

Singapore has close ties to both the U.S. and China, and is part of the regionally influential Association of Southeast Asian Nations along with the Philippines and others. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is in the interest of all of us to work with China, and it is also in the interest of China to work with everyone else in the world,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is in the interest of all of us to have a deeper understanding of China\u2019s fears, concerns and aspirations, just as it is important for China to understand how the rest of the world perceives China.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SINGAPORE (AP) \u2014 China and North Korea\u2019s support for Russia in its war against Ukraine has exposed how…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[11410,51,1395,7684,34,2000,299,4179,64131,8615,6660,13289,602,285,24159,332,7661,657,7662,7660,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-149986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-asia-pacific","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-china","11":"tag-china-government","12":"tag-emmanuel-macron","13":"tag-eu","14":"tag-europe","15":"tag-general-news","16":"tag-gilberto-teodoro-jr","17":"tag-international-news","18":"tag-north-korea","19":"tag-north-korea-government","20":"tag-pete-hegseth","21":"tag-politics","22":"tag-richard-marles","23":"tag-russia","24":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","25":"tag-ukraine","26":"tag-ukraine-government","27":"tag-war-and-unrest","28":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114609271795905635","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}