NATO can't expand beyond the realm of AUKUS, a security grouping comprising Australia, the United Kingdom (UK), and Australia, and QUAD, which is a security dialogue between Canberra, New Delhi, Tokyo, and Washington, a former Indian Air Force (IAF) officer has said.
The remarks of Air Marshal (Retd) M. Matheswaran came hours after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stated that the collective West was attempting to create a crisis-like situation in the Indo-Pacific region in the garb of spreading NATO's wings in the region.
Russian Defense Minister's Concerns Related to NATO's Expansion are Justified
Against this backdrop, Matheswaran, who presently serves as the Chairman of the Peninsula Foundation, a Chennai-based geopolitical think tank, noted that there was certainly an element of truth in the Russian Defense Minister's statement.
"Therefore, his concerns and worries that NATO can be used to expand its reach in areas which have completely no relation to them, are justified," the defense pundit told Sputnik India.
According to him, NATO has no locus standi (a right or ability to bring a legal action to a court of law) to be an organization that can be used to intervene anywhere in a conflict.
Because it is a Euro-American security construct and without the United Nations' sanctity, no regional outfit, including NATO has a locus standi or moral right to intervene anywhere. That's why, everything should come through the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) interface.
On being asked if he sees NATO's penetration as a big security threat in the Indo-Pacific, as pointed out by Shoigu, Matheswaran stated that the observation was certainly valid.
NATO Reached Expansion Limit in Asia
But he does not believe it is a big threat because the Russian Defense Minister is looking at it from the establishment of the AUKUS and the attempt to translate QUAD toward a security architecture.
"Those concerns are well-placed but practically it's impossible for NATO to extend beyond the limit which is already there," the retired IAF Air Marshal opined.
"American allies like South Korea, Japan, and Australia are already there, and AUKUS has been established as well. Beyond that I don't think there's much that NATO could do to expand their reach in Southeast Asia or the Indo-Pacific region," Matheswaran added.
NATO - Tool to Endorse US Hegemony
Furthermore, he underlined that NATO was a tool for endorsing, expanding, sustaining, or even trying to reverse the declining American hegemony.
Matheswaran expressed that the Ukraine conflict was a classic example - NATO was falling apart during US President Donald Trump's tenure but the Ukraine conflict gave them a chance to bring all the Western countries back under their fold.
"To an extent, NATO actually sort of undermines the sovereign status of the European countries who are members of the grouping," the military analyst summed up.
NATO's Growing Presence in Indo-Pacific a Precipe For Conflict
On the other hand, Lieutenant-Colonel (Retd) J.S. Sodhi stated that on 21 December 2011, then-US President Barack Obama announced the 'Pivot to Asia' policy in which he moved a majority of the US troops stationed in the Middle East to the Indo-Pacific Region to "counter the might of rising China."
Just a year before in 2010, China had become the world's second-largest economy which had alarm bells ringing in the USA.
Subsequently, the build-up of US troops increased in Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Australia.
"Thus, it is amply clear that sooner or later NATO will increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific Region which will increase the possibilities of conflict in the region," Sodhi said in a conversation with Sputnik India on Monday.