The Ukraine conflict is really about a greater confrontation between the West and Russia and China is a challenge to the world order based on Western values, according to the 2022 annual report by the General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) of the Netherlands.
The report, published this week, claims that Russia sees itself “not only at war with Ukraine, but also at war with the West,” while the West considers the conflict to be “also about our norms, values, freedom and prosperity.”
More than just a military conflict between two countries, the fighting in Ukraine “suddenly accelerated developments that have been going on in the world for a long time, changed the relationships between groups of countries, and can influence how countries interact with each other for a long time to come. In short, it turned out to be a geopolitical system shock,” the AIVD said.
According to the AIVD, from Moscow’s perspective, the broader conflict is “about geopolitical relations in the world.” Russia believes it to be an existential conflict and is trying to “undermine Western democracies,” the agency claimed.
The fighting in Ukraine “also put pressure on fault lines in the world that were already coming to the surface, especially the one between the US and China. Their economic and geopolitical competition is forcing more and more countries to choose sides,” the agency added.
According to the AIVD, though it is the biggest trading partner of the Netherlands, China also “poses the greatest threat to the Dutch economic security,” spying on both government and private companies “without scruples.”
The security service claimed that China seeks to replace the “international order based on Western values” with a world order in which Beijing is on top.
The AIVD findings come as the government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced plans to restrict exports of semiconductor-producing equipment to China. The US has been pressuring the Netherlands to do so for months.