NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stressed the importance of expanding cooperation between the Western military alliance and partners in the Indo-Pacific region, in view of a visit to North Korea by Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Putin’s visit to North Korea demonstrates and confirms the very close alignment between Russia and authoritarian states like North Korea, but also China and Iran,” Stoltenberg said at a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington on Tuesday. “This also demonstrates that our security is not regional. It’s global. What happen…