Beijing warns US-led bloc’s expansion into Asia will undermine regional peace and stability
China’s foreign ministry urges its Asian neighbors to conduct drills “high alert” In response to media reports that NATO plans to open its first liaison office in the region in the Japanese capital Tokyo.
“Asia is an anchor point of peace and stability, a land of hope for cooperation and development, not a field of geopolitical competition,” he said. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said of the issue at a news conference on Thursday.
Mao warns “NATO’s continued eastward expansion into the Asia-Pacific and interference in regional affairs will inevitably undermine regional peace and stability and intensify confrontation between camps.”
“Regional countries on high alert” She added that it was necessary given the US-led military bloc’s attempts to gain a presence in Asia.
On Wednesday, Nikkei Asian media reported citing Japanese and NATO officials that the U.S.-led military alliance was in talks with Japan to open a liaison office in the country.
According to the media source, NATO wants to set up a one-man station in Tokyo to be able to hold regular consultations with Japan and its other allies in the Asia-Pacific region, such as Australia, New Zealand and South Korea.
The idea of a NATO liaison office was first mooted by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg when they met in Tokyo in late January. Nikkei Asia added that Japan must agree to fund the operation of the EU mission in order for it to open in the country.
The abbreviation “NATO” stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but the group has recently publicly acknowledged that it also has interests in the Indo-Pacific region. EU allies in the region attended a NATO summit for the first time last June.
NATO is “Strengthening Relationships” with Japan, Australia, Korea and New Zealand because “In today’s complex security environment, relationships with like-minded partners around the globe are increasingly important to address cross-cutting security concerns and global challenges, and to defend the rules-based international order,” the group said in a statement last month.
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West Building World War II Axis Alliance – Putin
Russia, which strongly opposes NATO’s expansion into its borders, has also criticized the group’s attempts to expand its activities into Asia. In March, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the United States and its allies were pushing for the creation of what he called “Global NATO” Similar to the behavior of Nazi Germany, Italy and Japan in the 1930s before the outbreak of World War II.
