The former US defense secretary, James Mattis, has warned that America will need to strengthen its military forces to counter the  joint threat from Russia and China.

Mattis, a former US Marine Corps general, spoke of the growing nexus between the two autocratic regimes, which is now supported by Iran and North Korea, in a speech focussing on “America’s place in a dangerous world”.

The 73-year-old general, who also served as the defence secretary in the Trump administration, spoke out at the same time as  Russian President Vladimir Putin was meeting with the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to sign a new defence pledge in what the two leaders said was in “the face of aggression”.

Gen Mattis said in a speech: “Today we face a strengthening partnership among autocrats. The network they form is a reality.

“We are going to have to face it. It does no good to look the other way.” 

Putin invaded Georgia in 2008, Crimea in 2014 and now what the people of Ukraine are going through is “bloody awful,” Mattis said. A continent away, China is threatening Taiwan and countries in the South China Sea, plus Japan, Mattis said.

Gen Mattis described the nation’s military capability as “big” and “good” but said its enemies are strengthening their military capabilities. 

In a distinguished career Gen Mattis led the 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade in the war in Afghanistan and the 1st Marine Division in the invasion of Iraq. 

He commanded all US forces in the Middle East as the commander of CENTCOM (Central Command) from 2010 to 2013.

He served in the Trump administration as defense secretary from 2017 to 2019 but resigned from the office over disagreements with the president over the treatment of allies and the US approach to “malign actors and strategic competitors” on the world stage. 

In the speech he also called on the people of the United States to pull together.

Gen Mattis, who joined the US Marines in 1969, added: “We are going to have to come back together with a fundamental friendliness to each other.”

Russia and China are cheering on the lack of compromise in the United States and combative politics, which is dividing America, and the paralysis that is keeping lawmakers from solving fundamental problems, he said. 

In a theme he has mentioned in previous speeches, Gen Mattis, added: “Compromise is the only way forward to hold together. Compromise is not a dirty word.” 

“Most important is to put others first,” he said. Allies are important to the United States, he said, recalling the day after the 9/11 terrorist attacks when NATO, and other countries came together. 

Two months later Gen Mattis was fighting in Afghanistan with the help of allies. 

He added: “They were there alongside us because the Greatest Generation (which formed NATO in 1949) dealt with the reality of the world and perceived the terror of leaving an open playing field for aggression.”

Never had Europe been so unified as now against Chinese-supported Russian aggression, he said. Even Sweden and Finland, which remained neutral through the Cold War, applied to join NATO in 2022. 

But world threats are not confined to Europe. The “next Ukraine” could be in the Pacific, he said. 

He continued: “I don’t want to call it a war footing, but I think the time is now here we have to go to a deterrent force.”

Pulling out of NATO would be an economic mistake, repeating what he was once told — “if you are going into a gunfight, bring all your friends with guns”.