A top NATO chief has urged business leaders to begin preparing for a ‘wartime scenario’ following rising tensions across the world.

The warning comes as Germany announced it was drawing up a list of bunkers and other underground facilities that could provide shelter for civilians in the event of an attack.

Speaking in Brussels yesterday, Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer warned that NATO members needed to adjust their production and distribution lines in order to be less vulnerable to blackmail from countries such as Russia and China.

The chair of NATO’s military committee said: ‘If we can make sure that all crucial services and goods can be delivered no matter what, then that is a key part of our deterrence.’

Speaking at an event of the European Policy Centre think tank, he described deterrence as going far beyond military capability alone, since all available instruments could and would be used in war.

‘We’re seeing that with the growing number of sabotage acts, and Europe has seen that with energy supply,’ Bauer said.

Meanwhile, Germany is exploring methods of keeping their civilian population safe in the event of a conflict.

This would involve reopening Germany’s 579 World War Two and Cold War bunkers and repurposing underground car parks and metro stations as shelters.

Germany is also planning to release an app to help the public find emergency shelters in the event of an attack.

The Guardian reported that a digital directory of bunkers and emergency shelters will be drawn up so people can find them quickly using a planned phone app.

The new plans have been drawn up during escalating tensions between the West and Russia over the ongoing Ukraine war.

In October, German intelligence chiefs warned that Russia would probably be capable of launching an attack on the military alliance by 2030.

Bauer has also warned of the dangers facing the West from China.

He said: ‘We thought we had a deal with Gazprom, but we actually had a deal with Mr Putin. And the same goes for Chinese-owned infrastructure and goods. We actually have a deal with (Chinese President) Xi (Jinping).’

Highlighting western dependencies on supplies from China, with 60 per cent of all rare earth materials produced and 90 per cent processed there, Bauer claimed it was ‘naive’ to think China might not use this dependency to its advantage.

‘We are naive if we think the Communist Party will never use that power. Business leaders in Europe and America need to realise that the commercial decisions they make have strategic consequences for the security of their nation,’ Bauer stressed.

‘Businesses need to be prepared for a wartime scenario and adjust their production and distribution lines accordingly. Because while it may be the military who wins battles, it’s the economies that win wars.’

The rising global tensions come after Ukraine began using American and British missiles to hit targets within the Kursk region of Russia.

During a strike on November 20, where British Storm Shadow missiles were allegedly used, top Russian general  Lt-Gen Valery Solodchuk and 500 North Korean soldiers were killed.

Russia’s ambassador to the UK declared that Ukraine’s use of Storm Shadow missiles on Russian territory meant Britain ‘is now directly involved in this war’.

His comments came as British and European leaders decried a ‘clear and deeply concerning escalation’ in the Ukraine conflict by Vladimir

Putin after Russia’s forces struck the city of Dnipro with a never-before seen hypersonic ballistic missile last Thursday.