Chinese Ambassador to Russia in an interview with TASS: Advising NATO not to extend its black hand into the Asia Pacific Cold War | NATO Ambassador

On August 3rd, Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui gave an interview to TASS with the title "Advising NATO not to extend its black hands into the Asia Pacific". The full text is as follows:

As a remnant of the Cold War, NATO was supposed to disappear with the end of the Cold War, but it continued to prolong its existence by provoking conflicts and launching wars. For over thirty years, NATO has been stirring up trouble and creating division and turmoil in Kosovo, Libya, Afghanistan and other places. The five eastward expansions have seriously impacted the existing European security order after the Cold War, becoming the main cause of the comprehensive escalation of the Ukrainian crisis. It has been proven that wherever NATO's claws extend, there will be casualties and unrest.

In recent years, NATO has been extending its hand and trying to get involved in Asia Pacific affairs. NATO has invited Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand to participate in the NATO summit for two consecutive years, signed a "separate customized partnership plan" with the four countries, and plans to establish the first Asia Pacific liaison office in Japan in 2024. Its ambition to move eastward into the Asia Pacific has aroused high vigilance and resolute opposition from regional countries. Former Australian Prime Minister Keating wrote an article stating that NATO's eastward expansion into the Asia Pacific region is like a "plague", which expresses the common concerns of Asia Pacific countries.

It must be pointed out that NATO's eastward expansion into the Asia Pacific region will seriously violate the United Nations Charter and be completely untenable under international law. One is to go beyond the scope of collective self-defense allowed by the Charter. NATO claims to be a collective defense organization, exercising the right of collective self-defense, but continues to expand beyond its borders, intending to provoke military confrontation in the Asia Pacific region. There is no threat of force against NATO in the Asia Pacific region, let alone military attacks, and NATO has no legitimate reason to invoke collective self-defense. Secondly, it violates the provisions of the Charter regarding regional arrangements. The Charter clearly stipulates that the Security Council is the primary organ responsible for maintaining international peace and security, and "regional organs or measures" should be limited to maintaining peace and security within the region, and relevant actions should be authorized by the Security Council. NATO's eastward expansion into the Asia Pacific region will exceed its geographical scope as defined by its own constitution, and interfere with the powers of the Security Council in affairs, violating the restrictions on regional arrangements stipulated in the Charter. Thirdly, it deviates from the purpose of the Charter to develop friendly relations among nations and enhance universal peace. NATO disregards the overall peace and stability situation in the Asia Pacific region and insists on conducting military exercises in the region, carrying out so-called "freedom of navigation operations", exaggerating tensions and creating confrontations between factions. After NATO disrupted Europe, it wanted to disrupt peace and tranquility in the Asia Pacific region, but its actions were of no help to the cause of human friendship and peace.

NATO has long been a geopolitical tool of the United States, and its eastward expansion into the Asia Pacific region is to serve US hegemony and cooperate with the implementation of the Indo Pacific strategy. The United States has formed small circles such as the "Okus" and "US Japan India Australia Quadrilateral Mechanism" in the Asia Pacific region, and now wants to introduce NATO as a military organization into the Asia Pacific region, intending to integrate the European and Asian alliance systems, and share the costs and pressures for the United States to contain and contain China and Russia, and maintain global hegemony. After the comprehensive escalation of the Ukrainian crisis, the United States manipulated NATO to hype up the so-called "China Russia threat", which is creating excuses for NATO's eastward expansion into the Asia Pacific region.

In today's era, countries are interdependent and integrated communities with a shared future. Openness, inclusiveness, and win-win cooperation are the only correct choices. Cold War thinking and camp confrontation are no longer appropriate. NATO's eastward expansion into the Asia Pacific region will only stir up regional tensions, widen the "trust deficit", intensify the arms race, poison the atmosphere of regional cooperation, trigger factional confrontation and even a "new cold war". NATO's eastward expansion into the Asia Pacific region is unpopular and has faced resistance from the international community, with even opposition within NATO. French President Macron recently publicly opposed NATO's establishment of a liaison office in Japan, emphasizing that NATO related documents clearly define the geographical scope of the North Atlantic, while Japan is not in the North Atlantic.

The Asia Pacific region is a hotbed of cooperation and development, not a geopolitical chess game. The long-term prosperity and stability of the Asia Pacific region, as well as the creation of the world-renowned "Asia Pacific miracle," rely on mutual respect, open cooperation, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation among regional countries, and the proper resolution of differences. Faced with the increasingly complex international situation, countries in the Asia Pacific region cherish the hard-earned peaceful development environment, understand the true purpose and negative impact of NATO's eastward expansion into the Asia Pacific, always maintain strategic clarity, and consciously maintain regional peace and stability. The countries and people in the region will never agree to foreign forces such as NATO's attempts to infiltrate the Asia Pacific region.

The Asia Pacific region is a highland for peaceful dialogue, and we do not welcome the "Asia Pacific version of NATO" and "NATO Asia Pacific ization". We urge NATO to follow the trend of the times, listen to the just calls of Asia Pacific countries for peace and development, correct misconceptions, abandon Cold War thinking, and not take the path of eastward expansion into the Asia Pacific without turning back. We also advise Japan and other countries to fully learn from historical lessons, not to blindly undermine regional peace and stability, and not to be NATO's "leading party" in the Asia Pacific region. "Bringing wolves into the house" will inevitably "ignite oneself"!

China is a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a maintainer of international order. China is willing to strengthen strategic cooperation with Asia Pacific countries, including Russia, practice true multilateralism, adhere to a common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security concept, play a constructive role in achieving long-term stability and sustainable development in the Asia Pacific region, and work together to build a community with a shared future in the Asia Pacific region.