China Blatantly Attacks NATO, Calls Alliance a Troublemaker

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International

luc, CNBC Indonesia

News

Sunday, 02/25/2024 07:20 IWST

Photo: Illustration of the NATO flag and the Chinese flag

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – China says NATO must stop fighting and start promoting global peace. This was stated by Chinese envoy Zhang Jun at a UN Security Council meeting dedicated to the second anniversary of the Ukrainian conflict.

The fight between Moscow and Kyiv, which erupted into open military conflict on February 24, 2022, was “a tragedy that could have been avoided,” Zhang stressed in his speech.

“The situation facing Europe today is closely related to NATO’s repeated expansion eastward since the end of the Cold War,” he said, quoted from RTSunday (25/2/2024).

Russia chose preventing Ukraine from joining NATO as one of the main objectives of its military operations. Moscow has warned on multiple occasions that it views Kyiv’s possible membership in the US-led military alliance as a major threat to its security.

The Chinese envoy underscored the need to “respect the legitimate security concerns of all countries,” which are members of the UN. “Regional security cannot be guaranteed by strengthening or even expanding military blocs,” he added.

“We encourage NATO to do some soul-searching, break out of the cage of the Cold War mentality, and refrain from acting as a trouble-making agent that triggers bloc confrontation,” Zhang said.

He also called on NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg “to look at the world through an objective viewpoint, stop attacking each other, and do things that are truly conducive to world peace.”

According to the envoy, the parties to the conflict in Ukraine should work to create “conditions that favor the resumption of negotiations… not man-made obstacles that make peace more difficult to achieve, let alone supplying weapons, lighting fires and pouring oil on them, and taking advantage of the prolonged crisis.”

In an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that his “promise was that NATO would not expand eastward” after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

However, Putin added, the West deceived Moscow, with the US-led bloc adding new members from Eastern European countries and the former Soviet Union.

In 1999, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland were the first former Soviet bloc countries to join NATO. A larger wave of expansion occurred in 2004 when Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia became members.

At its summit in Bucharest in 2008, the alliance said that Georgia and Ukraine would become future members, prompting strong protests from Russia.

The following year, NATO added Albania and Croatia to its list of members, followed by the inclusion of Montenegro and North Macedonia in 2017 and 2020 respectively.

The latest country to join is Finland, which agreed last year citing security concerns over the Ukraine conflict. Neighboring country Sweden is also just one step away from joining NATO, and is just short of approval from Hungary to complete its membership.

Watch the video below:

Video: Ukraine on the Edge, Cities Lost Until Aid Is Withheld

(luc/luc)