Russia and China are trying to destabilize NATO through acts of sabotage and cybercrime, Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Wednesday.
Rutte said the “escalating campaign of Russia’s hostile actions against NATO countries” will require the alliance to better share intelligence to coordinate the defence of critical infrastructure.
NATO foreign ministers are in Brussels for a second day of meetings at alliance headquarters focused on Russian and Chinese hybrid attacks.
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský said there were 500 suspicious incidents in Europe in 2024 and that nearly 100 of them can be attributed to Russia.
NATO needs to send a strong signal to Moscow that such activities will not be tolerated, Lipavský said. “It is very dangerous,” he stressed.
A senior NATO official, speaking on the sidelines of the foreign ministers meeting, said the alliance fears further serious acts of sabotage and cyberattacks on its territory.
The official said that Russia in particular appears to be becoming more willing to hurt or endanger lives through sabotage in NATO member countries.
China, Iran and North Korea are also active in cyberattacks, according to the official. Beijing, like Moscow, is conducting an ongoing campaign to spread malware, the official added.
The aim is to carry out espionage, but also to have the ability to cause disruption in the event of rising tensions.
Russia is focusing on critical infrastructure and in particular on industrial control systems, the official said.
The official cited as an example a major attack – probably carried out by Iran – on NATO member Albania, which paralyzed its border control system.
Interior Ministry files were also published online, the official explained, including police documents, email exchanges between officers, secret witnesses and Interpol files.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called on NATO to step up its protection of critical infrastructure like sea cables and pipelines through intelligence sharing and more patrols.
Before the start of the meeting, Baerbock highlighted the Baltic Sea as an area of priority where NATO monitoring and cooperation efforts must be stepped up.
The German foreign minister also cited disruption to global positioning signals (GPS) as another example of Russian hybrid activity.
