MICK RYAN
The NATO 75th anniversary summit will be held in Washington DC in the coming 48 hours. Key issues on the agenda will include the war in Ukraine, enhanced deterrence and improving military interoperability. But it is likely that China’s support to Russia’s war effort in Ukraine will also be a topic of discussion. As outgoing NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, recently noted, China is "sharing a lot of technologies, [like] micro-electronics, which are key for Russia to build missiles, weapons they use against Ukraine…at some stage, we should consider some kind of economic cost if China doesn't change their behaviour".
Last week, reports emerged of Chinese and Russian companies allegedly beginning co-development this year of an attack drone similar to the Iranian Shahed uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) that has been deployed in the thousands by Russia against Ukrainian targets. Last year, a Chinese defence company unveiled an attack drone which it called the Sunflower 200. This aerial vehicle looked very similar to the Iranian- Shahed-136 drone that has been procured and employed by Russia against Ukraine.
Also last week, Russian President Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping travelled to the capital of Kazakhstan for a meeting of leaders from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). The joint communique from this meeting stated that “the circle of states that stand for a just world order and are ready to resolutely defend their legitimate rights and protect traditional values is expanding.”
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