NATO Is Threat to Humanity & Global Peace
China Says to Let Go of “Cold War Mentality” Bloc Confrontation, Zero-Sum Approach
Countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) “already account for 55% of the world’s military spending in 2024. Yet they are still required to raise defense investment to 5% of GDP” to make the organization even more lethal for humanity, claimed China on Thursday, June 26.
“By playing up international and regional tensions and slandering China’s normal military buildup, NATO seeks “nothing but excuses to drastically grow its military spending, arbitrary reach beyond its geographical scope and mandate, and advance eastward into the Asia-Pacific,” observed Guo Jiakun, spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during a regular press conference.
Jiakun was answering a question about NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte’s remarks on Wednesday. Rutte had suggested that the hike in collective defense expenditure of the NATO countries is required to face the alleged military challenges from Russia and China.
Rutte was speaking on the second and concluding day of this year’s NATO summit in the Hague, Netherlands. He claimed that “making sure that NATO collectively has the money and the capabilities to” face not only the “long term threats of Russia, but also the massive built-up of the military in China” is crucial, adding that it is “really important that we spend more”.
NATO countries later decided to hike their defense expenditure to a minimum of 5% of their GDP from their current 2% on Wednesday.
Rutte also reiterated NATO’s allegations about China supporting the Russian war efforts in Ukraine along with North Korea and Iran. On the first day of the summit on Tuesday, Rutte had accused China of also providing technological support to the Russian military in its war in Ukraine.
Jiakun denied the NATO chief’s claims that China was supplying weapons or technological support to Russia. Calling all such claims a disinformation campaign, he asked NATO leadership to stop adding fuel to the fire and instigating confrontations around the world if it really seeks a secure peace.
NATO should abandon its Cold War mentality
“NATO calls itself a regional organization, but it keeps reaching beyond the geographical scope defined in its treaty and into the Asia-Pacific by claiming that what happens there and in the Euro-Atlantic are interconnected,” Jiakun noted with the caution that “the world is not blind to NATO’s calculations, and countries in the Asia-Pacific are certainly wary of it.”
NATO was established in 1949 under the leadership of the US as a collective security organization largely made of the countries from Western Europe and North America. It was centered around the perceived threats from the Soviet Union.
Instead of dismantling after the fall of the USSR in 1991, the organization has expanded to new members in Eastern Europe by projecting Russia as a potential threat.
NATO’s eastward expansion was one of the reasons cited by the Russians for launching its Special Military Operation in Ukraine in 2022.
NATO has also recently been attempting to expand its reach in the Asia-Pacific by proposing military collaboration with South Korea, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.
China has called NATO’s growing military engagement in the Asia-Pacific its attempt to create an Asian NATO to push for US and Western military dominance in the region. It has expressed concerns about NATO countries’ involvement in a growing number of military exercises in the region, calling them threats to regional security and stability.
Jiakun reminded the NATO leadership that China seeks to promote peace around the globe and is actively pushing for a political resolution in Ukraine.
China advised NATO leadership to “examine their behavior” and let go of their “Cold War mentality, bloc confrontation and zero-sum approach”, claiming that his country only seeks to “uphold its sovereignty, security, and development interests and continue to do its part to make the world a more peaceful and stable place.”
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