Russian troops near border not a threat: China’s UN envoy
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China does not believe that Russia's military presence on the Ukrainian borders is a threat to international peace and stability.
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Zhang Jun at a UN Security Council meeting in 2020. (AFP)
While western powers take an alarmist approach towards Russia's presence on the Ukrainian borders, the Chinese envoy to the United Nations, at a UN Security Council meeting, asserts that Russia's troop presence is not a threat to international peace and security.
"China opposes the Security Council's holding of this open meeting as requested by the United States. The Permanent Representative of the US to the UN … claimed that the reason why the US was asking the council to hold this open meeting was that Russia's deployment of troops along the Ukrainian border posed a threat to international peace and security. China can not align itself with this point," said the Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Zhang Jun on Monday.
He continues, "The expansion of NATO is a problem difficult to circumvent," indicating that NATO's deployment of troops on the border could pose as a real threat rather than the continuous sounding of alarms on imminent Russian aggression.
Xi: Abandon the Cold War mentality
In the same context, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi discussed with his US counterpart Antony Blinken during a phone call on Wednesday the situation in Ukraine.
During their call, Wang told Blinken that "all parties should entirely abandon the Cold War mentality," and that Russia's "reasonable security concerns should be taken seriously and resolved."
Beijing has denied allegations published by US media that the Chinese President Xi Jinping asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to avoid attacking Ukraine during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, describing them as provocative.
Russian President Vladimir Putin next month will visit Beijing for the Olympics, which the US is boycotting on the official level due to alleged "human rights concerns."
It is noteworthy that the Chinese newspaper Global Times, quoted a few days ago, some analysts as saying that the misinformation circulating among Western media about the Ukrainian crisis could affect the Chinese-Russian mutual trust, which shows the "ill intention" of the West to create divergences between Beijing and Moscow.
