US NATO Ambassador Julianne Smith, while speaking on NATO and strengthening relationships with South Asia and the Indo-Pacific, virtually said the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is ready to engage more with India if it is interested.
The Ambassador though stressed that currently there are no plans by the alliance to expand this to a broader global military alliance. “The NATO alliance is open to more engagement should India seek that. NATO currently has 40 different partners around the World and each individual partnership is different.
Various countries come to the door seeking different levels of political engagement, sometimes countries are much more interested in working on inter-operability, and standardization questions. So, they vary.
But, the message that has already been sent back to India is that NATO alliance is certainly open to more engagement with India, should that country take interest in pursuing that”, said Julianne Smith in a virtual press briefing.
“Membership is not something that we have really considered with anyone in the Indo-Pacific or Asia-Pacific.
The alliance remains the Euro-Atlantic military alliance. Its door is open to the region. But there are no plans by the alliance to expand this to a broader global military alliance,” she added.
Further, speaking on the meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs, which will take place on April 4-5, 2023 at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels, the ambassador said.