China: No to US missile deployment; NATO must abandon ideological prejudices

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China's Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, spoke to Sputnik on a range of issues on Tuesday, regarding the US moves in the Asia Pacific region and NATO's eastward expansion in Europe close to Russia's borders.

Wang told the Agency that China opposes the US deployment of ground-based medium-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe.

"China has clearly expressed its position on the issue of medium-range missiles many times and is strongly opposed to the deployment by the United States of medium-range ground-based missiles in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe in any form," he said.

Wang said in a speech yesterday that China would not fear confrontation with the US, adding that problems between the two countries are due to misjudgments by the United States.

"If there is confrontation, then [China] will not fear it, and will fight to the finish," he asserted. The Foreign Minister affirmed that there is no harm in competition, "but it should be positive."

Recently, China warned against supporting the 'independence' of Taiwan, which has recently sparked sequences of tensions in the South China Sea. In this context, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi stressed that support for Taiwan's 'independence' will disrupt regional peace and stability, thus causing substantial damage, as per history and reality. He warned the US not to "send wrong signals" in order not to cause disruption. 

Wang urged the US to not only abstain from support but also to drop the notion of Taiwan's 'independence' and to keep the word they gave in the previous three China-US communiqués. He also urged Biden to stick to the One-China policy with real actions rather than empty promises. 

Russia's proposals on security guarantees reduce risk of conflicts 

Regarding NATO's movements in Eastern Europe, Wang said that Russia's proposals to the US and NATO on security guarantees help to increase mutual trust between countries and reduce the risk of conflicts.

On December 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry published draft agreements between Russia and the US and NATO on security guarantees. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that if NATO and the US do not respond to Russia's demand for security guarantees, it could lead to a new confrontation.

In an interview for Al Mayadeen, Ryabkov stressed that Russia prefers to be optimistic about the draft, hoping the other side would accept the search for solutions. He added that the US has set conditions related to Ukraine to reduce the escalation, but they are unacceptable.

"Regarding draft proposals on security guarantees for the United States and NATO, made public by the Russian Foreign Ministry, and the impact of the proposals on global strategic stability, China believes that in the current environment, Russian proposals comply with the basic norms of international relations, contribute to increasing mutual trust between countries, reduce the risk of conflicts, defend global and regional strategic stability," China's Foreign Minister said.

He commented on ideological prejudices reigning over decision-making in NATO, saying, "As the largest military alliance in the world, NATO must abandon the Cold War mentality and ideological prejudices, make more efforts to maintain international and regional security and stability."

China's Foreign Minister also said that his country is ready to hold discussions on a number of issues related to strategic stability as part of the dialogue between the five nuclear states and the Geneva Conference on Disarmament.