The military Chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, had dismissed the recent public display of unity among North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Russian President Vladimir Putin as nothing more than theatrical posturing.
According to a report by Anadolu English on Wednesday 10 September, 2025, the military Chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Giuseppe Cavo Dragone while speaking at the Seoul Defense Dialogue, emphasized that despite the high-profile gathering at China’s military parade, the three countries lack the fundamental military compatibility for a true alliance, declaring that Russia, China, and North Korea did not have standardization, interoperability, or the same tactics, and they could not fight together the way NATO does after 75 years of training.
He also asserted that the trio’s cooperation is primarily symbolic and does not translate into an operational military entity capable of coordinated action, acknowledging that economic and diplomatic benefits could stem from their ties, highlighting NATO’s growing security partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region, and stressing the importance of collective international efforts to counter threats such as North Korea’s advancing nuclear and missile programs.
In his words, Giuseppe Cavo Dragone said “It’s not a military threat, because they don’t have anything in common. They don’t have standardization. They don’t have interoperability. They don’t have the same tactics. They cannot fight together the way NATO does after 75 years of training. It’s a show, a show of flags, but nothing more than that… It is not an operational entity.”
The top NATO Chief, Dragone, went further to express doubt over the possibility of complete disarmament of nuclear arsenals in the near future, advocating for heightened sanctions and diplomatic isolation of North Korea, urging China and Russia to consider the repercussions of continuing to support Pyongyang.
