A Chinese diplomat has said NATO should stick to ♒what he claimed was a promise not to expand Eastward.
In a speꦛech on Saturday, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng criticised the far-reaching Western sanctions imposed on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine and said the root cause of the war in Ukraine “lies in the Cold War mentality and power politics”.
Echoing a Kremlin talking point, the Chinese envoy said if NATO's "enlargement goes further, it would be approaching the outskirts of Moscow where a missile could hit the Kremlin within seven or eight minutes"♍;.
He 💙added, “Pushing a major countr𓃲y, especially a nuclear power, to the corner would entail repercussions too dreadful to contemplate.”
He expressed an understanding for Russian President Vladimir Putin's oft-repe🗹ated position, saying that NATO should have disintegrated and "been consigned to history alongside the Warsaw P💙act".
He added, “Howeve𒆙r, rather thanꦕ breaking up, NATO has kept strengthening and expanding, and intervened militarily in countries like Yugoslavia, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. One could well anticipate the consequences going down this path. The crisis in Ukraine is a stern warning.”
He further said Chinese President Xi Jinping in talks with US President Joe Biden on Friday urged t♌he parties in Ukraine to demonstrate “political will and keep the dialogꩵue and negotiation going".
"The US and NATO should also have dialogue with Russia to address the crux of the Ukraine crisis ꦜand ease the security concerns of both Russia and Ukraine,” he added.
