30.11.2022, Brussel.
China is turning from a competitor of the North Atlantic Alliance into a rival against the background of Ukrainian events, Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau, the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, said on November 30 following a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.
“The conclusions were very simple – China is our competitor in many economic issues,” Rau said, pointing out that in matters of international security, given the armed conflict in Ukraine, China is “increasingly” turning into a “rival to the transatlantic community.”
The minister explained that NATO had hoped that Beijing “would decisively put more pressure on Russia to seek a peaceful resolution to the situation in Ukraine,” and both NATO members and its Secretary General had expected that China would do so already “at the beginning of the conflict.”
The head of the Polish Foreign Ministry pointed out that despite NATO’s dissatisfaction with the proximity of Russian-Chinese relations, “there are issues in which NATO should cooperate with China,” namely, the areas of health, nonproliferation of nuclear weapons and climate change.
Earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance does not consider China an adversary and intends to continue engaging with it where it is in its interests, including to convey its position on Russia’s behavior in Ukraine.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
