The new agreement on Russia's comprehensive strategic partnership with North Korea demonstrates growing coherence between authoritarian states and underscores the importance of unity of democracies, the head of NATO said on Wednesday .
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Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin has signed an agreement with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that includes mutual defense commitments, which significantly changes Moscow's policy towards Pyongyang.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that North Korea has provided Russia with" a huge amount of ammunition", while China and Iran are also providing significant assistance to the Russian military-industrial complex to wage war against Ukraine.
We must realize that authoritarian states are increasingly uniting. They support each other in ways we've never seen before
"At a time when they are increasingly United - authoritarian regimes like North Korea, China, Iran, Russia - it is even more important that we are united as countries that believe in freedom and democracy," he said.
Deepening contacts between Russia and other Asian countries means that cooperation with allies in the Asia-Pacific region is becoming increasingly important for NATO, he added, noting that this is why the leaders of Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea were invited to the NATO summit. Washington next month.
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Stoltenberg also expressed confidence that Canada will meet the target set for all NATO member countries for defense spending of 2% of gross domestic product.
The Canadian government, which invests billions in social programs, spends only 1.37% of GDP on its army. In April, Ottawa published a plan according to which this figure should recover 1.76% by 2030.
Other NATO members are "concerned about the fiscal balance, they want to spend money on health and education," he added, stressing that "if we can't save the world, then our efforts in health, climate change and education ... they fail.