There China did not let it go after the latest statements by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, and urged the Alliance to “stop shifting the blame” to others for the war in Ukraine. Visiting Washington this week, Monday night Stoltenberg accused Beijing of worsening the conflict by helping to rebuild Russia’s defense industry.
Chinese strategic ambiguity, which seeks to support Russia’s war effort and at the same time maintain relations with the United States and Europe, including from a commercial point of view, according to Stoltenberg “cannot work in the long term”. Thus, in an interview with BBC released on the occasion of his visit to the USA, before the Alliance summit in July in New York, the NATO secretary stated that the China “is sharing many technologies, such as microelectronics, that are critical for Russia to build missiles, weapons that they use against Ukraine,” before concluding: “At some point, we should consider some kind of cost economic if China does not change its behavior.” A similar, but less direct, concern came from the G7 conclusions.
Above all, the NATO secretary, who is out of term, made it known that there were “ongoing talks” on possible sanctions. Stoltenberg also spoke on Monday about the need for Western Alliance states to increase nuclear warheads in Europe to strengthen the deterrence against Russia.
“We advise NATO to stop shifting blame and sowing discord, not to add fuel to the fire and instigate conflict, but rather to do something practical for the political solution to the crisis,” said the spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Lin Jian Tuesday in his daily briefing.
“NATO should do is self-reflection rather than wantonly defaming and attacking China,” Lin Jian added. “China is not the originator or party responsible for the crisis Ukraine and has always been committed to promoting peace and the talks have been widely recognized by the international community”.
