General Denis Mercier, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the NATO Joint Armed Forces on Transformation, said that according to the report of the Bloc's analysts, the risk of a large interstate war has now appeared. This was reported by the Voice of America.
"The growing military power of China and Russia will challenge the transatlantic alliance in the coming years, and NATO's measures to strengthen its capabilities can lead to a new arms race like the Cold War. We see a significant increase in the risk of a large interstate conflict, " the military analyst said.
The report said defense spending had begun increasing after Russia’s annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014, and projections called for further increases through 2045.
Mercier said NATO was already working to expand its capabilities in the cyber domain, and to ensure cyber protections were baked into every weapons system and network from the outset.
“In NATO, we are under permanent attack in cyber,” he said, noting that the alliance had proven “quite good” at protecting itself thus far, but needed to remain vigilant.
