BEIJING: China urges the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to stop its groundless accusations and provocative remarks against the country, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Wednesday.
Wang made the remarks in response to a question on issues related to China and Russia in the NATO summit communique, at a daily press briefing.
Featuring non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-targeting of any third party, China-Russia relations surpassed the kind of military-political alliance seen during the Cold War, and transcended such a model of state-to-state relations, which is fundamentally different from NATO countries engaging in small circles and camp-based confrontation, he said.
China urges the NATO to abandon the Cold War mentality, give up the wrong approach of seeking absolute security, and stop disturbing the Asia-Pacific region and the world, Wang said. When asked to comment on the communique saying China is rapidly expanding and diversifying its nuclear arsenal and lacks nuclear transparency, Wang said NATO’s irresponsible exaggeration of China as a nuclear threat is “extremely hypocritical.”
As a military alliance with the most and most powerful nuclear weapons, NATO has engaged in “microphone diplomacy” in recent years, hyping up China as a nuclear threat, which China firmly opposes, he said.
China has always adopted a prudent and responsible attitude on the issue of nuclear weapons, he said, adding that China always adheres to the nuclear strategy of self-defense, maintains its nuclear forces at the lowest level required for national security, and has no intention of engaging in a nuclear arms race.
Wang added China also maintains the policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons at any time and under any circumstances, and unconditionally commits itself to not using or threatening to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states or nuclear-weapon-free zones.
The international community has more reasons to be concerned about NATO’s “nuclear sharing” arrangement, Wang pointed out.
“Through such an arrangement, NATO has the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, and some member states are stepping up efforts to modernize their nuclear forces and strengthen the so-called ‘extended deterrence,’ increasing the risk of nuclear proliferation and nuclear conflict,” said Wang.
If NATO members are truly interested in reducing strategic risks and maintaining strategic stability, they should take practical actions to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in national and collective security policies, promote strategic stability, and maintain international and regional peace and security, he said. –The Daily Mail-CGTN news exchange item
