Beijing Urges West to Stop Instigating Tensions Around China's Rapprochement With Russia
© Sputnik / Michael Klimentyev
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BEIJING (Sputnik) - China calls on the West to cease escalating tensions around the rapprochement between Russia and China, given that Moscow and Beijing develop relations without intending to harm other countries, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg claimed that Russia's and China's growing alignment in military and diplomatic domains impacts the alliance's security, while Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison urged Beijing to denounce Moscow over its "actions in Ukraine" and stop resisting the West in launching a response through the United Nations.
"China and Russia under the leadership of the two heads of state have always advocated the development of lasting relations of good neighbourliness, friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation based on non-alignment and non-confrontation, relations that are not targeted at third countries", Wang said at a briefing.
He stressed that both countries had always pursued a new kind of international relations based on mutual respect, impartiality and justice, while the contribution of the two countries to international peace and development was obvious and indisputable.
The Type 052D destroyer Hefei of the Chinese Navy arrives in Baltiysk for the 2017 Naval Cooperation Russia-China drills
© Sputnik / Igor Zarembo
/ "The international community clearly sees who in the world is a real troublemaker and poses a tangible threat to security," Wang noted.
He added that China advocates an equitable and fair attitude toward the countries' interests and security proposals while supporting dialogue and consultations as means to settle disputes and ensure global strategic balance and stability.
"We urge the parties concerned to stop making statements that exacerbate tensions, such propaganda of confrontation and dissemination of false information for the sake of political interests is immoral and extremely dangerous", Wang added.
In late January, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss also raised concerns over China and Russia bridging together, saying that Moscow and Beijing seek to fill an ideological vacuum by forging alliances with authoritarian regimes and pursuing closer bilateral cooperation than ever before.
On 4 February Russian President Vladimir Putin visited China, where he held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The sides focused on bilateral agenda and economic cooperation and signed a package of documents alongside a joint Russia-China statement on the international relations ushering in a new era, where they expressed a shared perspective on nuclear non-proliferation, arms control and denounced further NATO enlargement.
