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It is impossible to ensure European security by expanding military blocs, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a briefing on Thursday.
"It is impossible to ensure regional security by means of strengthening and expanding military blocs. One country’s security should not be ensured at the expense of the security of others,"he said in response to a TASS request to comment on published remarks by Henry Kissinger, former US Secretary of State (1973-1977) and National Security Advisor to two presidents (1969-1975), about Ukraine’s potential accession to NATO.
China expects all parties to the conflict to adhere to a common, comprehensive and sustainable security concept, Wang added. According to the senior diplomat, this could be achieved through dialogue and consultations based on respect for the legitimate security interests of all parties.
On May 17, The Economist magazine published an interview with Kissinger, who will turn 100 years old on May 27. In the interview, the doyen of US diplomacy and veteran practitioner of geopolitics said that Ukraine should become a member state of NATO. According to him, Ukraine’s accession to the North Atlantic Alliance would be in the interests of both Kiev and Moscow, and would serve as a guarantee against any future attempts by the Ukrainian leadership to resolve territorial disputes by military means.
Kissinger acknowledged that he had changed his point of view about Ukraine's potential membership in NATO, saying he would prefer to avoid a situation wherein Ukraine became a non-aligned neutral state.
On May 15, the Washington Post reported, quoting sources, that the NATO countries had decided not to send Ukraine an invitation to become a member of the alliance at its upcoming summit in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, but are discussing the possibility of stepping up cooperation with Kiev and potentially establishing a timeframe for its entry into the military bloc. According to the authoritative US publication, a consensus exists among the alliance’s members that, in spite of Kiev's fervent pleas, NATO will not be extending an official invitation to Ukraine to join the bloc during the Vilnius summit on July 11-12.
NATO adopted a political declaration at the Bucharest summit in April 2008 that Ukraine would eventually become a NATO member, but declined to provide a Membership Action Plan (MAP), the first step in a prospective member country's legal procedure for joining the organization. In February 2019, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) approved amendments to Ukraine's constitution enshrining its NATO aspirations into law. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has repeatedly stated that Kiev was seeking to obtain an understanding of a specific date by which Ukraine could expect to join the alliance.
China’s special representative for Eurasian affairs meets with Zelensky — Chinese MFA
China’s special representative for Eurasian affairs, Li Hui, has met with President Vladimir Zelensky during his visit to Ukraine, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a news briefing on Thursday.
"During Special Representative Li Hui's visit to Ukraine, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky met with him. Li also held meetings with other Ukrainian officials," Wang said.
According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, China’s special envoy for Eurasian affairs Li Hui visited Kiev on May 16-17. He said that there was no universal method for resolving the Ukrainian crisis. China will provide assistance in its own way for handling the problem.
Earlier, it was reported that Li held separate meetings with the chief of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andrey Yermak, and Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba.
China Fires Back at 'Washed-Up' Liz Truss Over Taiwan Speech
Truss has become the most senior British politician to visit Taiwan since former UK PM Margaret Thatcher made the journey to the island in the 1990s.
Former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss has urged her successor Rishi Sunak to designate China a "threat" to her country’s national security.
In a speech in Taiwan's capital Taipei on Wednesday, Truss called on the British prime minister to deliver on language he used during last summer's Conservative Party leadership contest. At the time, he described China as the "biggest long-term threat to Britain," while also pledging to close all of Beijing's Confucius Institutes in the UK.
She warned the West against working with China, in her condemnation of “totalitarian regimes.” "We know what happens to the environment or world health under totalitarian regimes that don't tell the truth - you can't believe a word they say," according to Truss.
The former British PM claimed that China is "undertaking the biggest military build-up in peacetime history” and that “they have already made their choice about their strategy,” adding "the only choice we have is: do we appease and accommodate that strategy or do we take action now?" On Taiwan, she called for a "more coordinated approach” so that the island “has the defense it needs" in the face of China’s potential "invasion". She added that Western countries "need not to engage in further economic dialogue with China while it takes this aggressive stance."
The remarks сome as Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters that "washed-up British politicians use Taiwan to draw attention to themselves," in an apparent nod to Truss.
The statement followed the Chinese Embassy branding Truss’ visit to Taiwan as a "dangerous political show which will do nothing but harm to the UK."
"This provocative move has caused strong indignation among the Chinese people and will be firmly rejected by people with conscience from all walks of life," the embassy emphasized.
Truss visiting Taiwan makes her the most well-known UK politician to travel to the island since former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s trip in the 1990s. The five-day visit by Sunak’s predecessor to Taiwan comes as ties between Beijing and London are at their worst in decades.
A new comprehensive review of the UK’s security, defense and foreign policy, in particular, refers to China as a threat to Taiwan.
Tensions between mainland China on the one hand, and Taiwan and countries boosting cooperation with the island on the other hand, escalated after then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the island in early August 2022. Beijing condemned Pelosi's trip, which it regarded as a gesture of support for separatism, and held large-scale military exercises in the vicinity of the island in a retaliation move.
Beijing perceives Taiwan, which has been governed indecently since 1949, as an unalienable part of China’s sovereign territory and opposes any official contacts between the island and other countries. Taipei insists that is an autonomous nation but stops short of declaring independence.
Beijing opposes any official contacts of foreign states with Taipei and considers Chinese sovereignty over the island indisputable.
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