Beijing urged NATO on Wednesday not to clamor about the ”China threat” and instigate regional confrontation, as the Western military alliance’s chief sought to expand the bloc’s sphere of influence in Asia.
”The Asia-Pacific is not a battlefield for geopolitical competition and bloc confrontation, and the Cold War mentality is not welcome in the region,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a daily news conference.
The remarks came as NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg concluded a four-day trip to South Korea and Japan, during which he hyped up the so-called China threat and Cold War mentality while calling Seoul and Tokyo to increase armaments and step into the Russia-Ukraine conflict. […]
Stoltenberg’s trip is not just unwelcomed in Asia, but also in Europe.
Croatian President Zoran Milanovic criticized the visit on Monday. ”I see that the chief of NATO is in South Korea and Japan,” he said. ”He does not represent me and my country there. It is not a NATO area, but it is in the neighborhood of China. It has nothing to do with Croatia.”
Shigeki Nagayama, a law professor at Tokai University in Japan, said the Japanese government’s welcoming of NATO’s involvement in the Asia-Pacific region is to enhance its own defense capability, and will only bring new factors of instability to the Asia-Pacific.
Yoichi Komori, an emeritus professor at the University of Tokyo, said the United States and NATO are using Japan as a shield in case of conflict.
”That’s what the US and NATO want,” Komori said. ”That’s very dangerous for Japan to give full play to its self-defense forces in East Asia, which is also contrary to Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan. We, as the people, must not allow it.” Läs artikel