China not an adversary but its ties with Russia a concern: Nato
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MADRID • Nato does not see China as an adversary but is concerned about Beijing's ever closer ties with Moscow following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, said the head of the US-led military alliance, Mr Jens Stoltenberg, yesterday.
"We don't regard China as an adversary," Mr Stoltenberg said on the sidelines of a Nato summit in Madrid, adding that China would soon be the biggest economy in the world and that Nato needed to engage with Beijing on issues like climate change.
"But we are disappointed by the fact that China has not been able to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that China is spreading many of the false narratives about Nato, the West, and also that China and Russia are more close now than they have ever been before," he added.
At the Madrid meeting that kicked off, the alliance was set to label China a "systemic challenge" in its new policy guidelines for the coming decade, reflecting shifts in the geopolitical landscape as President Xi Jinping increasingly joins hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin in opposition to the world's democracies.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian criticised the proposed label at a regular press briefing in Beijing.
"As a product of the Cold War and the world's largest military alliance, Nato has long clung to outdated security concepts and become a tool for certain countries to maintain hegemony," he said.
"Nato's so-called new strategic concept is just 'old wine in a new bottle'. It still has not changed the Cold War mentality of creating imaginary enemies and bloc confrontation," he added.
The presence of four leaders from the Asia-Pacific at the meeting in Spain this week will only make China more suspicious. For the first time, the leaders of Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand will all attend the summit.
US President Joe Biden will hold a rare three-way meeting today with the leaders of Japan and South Korea at the summit, said National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
"The President... will have the opportunity to host a trilateral meeting with the president of Korea and the prime minister of Japan. This will be the first trilateral leaders-level meeting that we've had in some time," Mr Sullivan said aboard Air Force One yesterday, on the way to Madrid.
Discussions will focus on the threat from North Korea's nuclear programme and tensions with China, he added.
REUTERS, BLOOMBERG, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
