In a recent interview with The New York Times at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Secretary-General Mark Rutte issued a stark warning about the possibility of a coordinated threat from China and Russia.

“There’s a growing realization—and we shouldn’t be naïve about this,” Rutte said. “If Xi Jinping were to launch an attack on Taiwan, he would almost certainly contact his very junior partner in all of this, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin in Moscow, and say: ‘I’m going to move forward with this, and I need you to keep the West occupied in Europe by attacking NATO territory.’ That’s the most likely scenario.”

To deter such a development, Rutte emphasized the need for two key strategies: “First, NATO must remain strong enough collectively to ensure Russia never dares to act. And second, we must deepen our cooperation with the Indo-Pacific—something President Trump is strongly advocating—because of the growing interconnectedness in areas like defense, industry, and innovation between NATO and our partners in the region.