'Cold War Script Must Never Be Re-enacted in Asia-Pacific': China Opposes NATO's 'Strategic Concept'

Beijing has firmly rejected the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) upcoming ‘Strategic Concept’, with China’s Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) warning that the “long-outdated Cold War script must never be re-enacted in the Asia-Pacific”.

Leaders of Australia, South Korea, Japan and New Zealand are invited to this year’s NATO Leaders’ Summit, heralding the trans-Atlantic alliance’s involvement in the Asia-Pacific region for the first time in order to balance Beijing’s growing influence.

“We urge NATO to learn its lessons, and not to use the Ukraine crisis as excuse to stoke worldwide bloc confrontation or a new Cold War, and not to look for imaginary enemies in the Asia-Pacific or artificially create contradictions and divisions,” Ambassador Zhang Jun, China’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) said in a speech during the Security Council briefing on Ukraine on Tuesday.

“We firmly oppose certain elements clamoring for NATO’s involvement in the Asia-Pacific, or an Asia-Pacific version of NATO on the back of military alliances,” Jun remarked.

Jun said that Beijing was “paying close attention” to the “strategic adjustment” of NATO and was “deeply concerned “deeply concerned about the policy implications of the so-called "Strategic Concept.”

The Chinese diplomat cautioned that the “turmoil and conflict” affecting other parts of the world, including Ukraine, must “not be allowed” in the region.

“Asia-Pacific countries share the appreciation for the hard-won peace and prosperity, and the wish to focus on mutually beneficial cooperation in pursuit of common development and revitalization. Any attempt to go against the tide of history is doomed to fail,” he added.

He also reiterated Beijing’s previous criticism of NATO for stoking the conflict in Ukraine, stating that the policy of pursuing one’s own security interests at the expense of others will “inevitably lead to security dilemmas.”

“NATO’s five eastward expansions after the Cold War have not only failed to make Europe secure, but also sowed the seeds of conflict. It is a lesson worth reflecting on. The Cold War ended a long time ago,” Jun underlined.

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Like Russia, China has also been critical of NATO’s “eastward expansion” into Europe around Russian borders, which President Vladimir Putin has cited as a major reason behind the launch of the special military operation in Ukraine.

The joint declaration signed by President Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping on February 4 called upon NATO to “abandon its ideologized cold war approaches.”

‘Madrid Strategic Concept’ to Address ‘Fundamental Shift’ in NATO’s Defense, Says Stoltenberg

NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said that the new Strategic Concept set to be unveiled at the summit in Madrid will address a “fundamental shift in NATO’s deterrence and defense.”

“It will address China for the first time,” he said.

At a joint press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Stoltenberg noted that the February 4 declaration by leaders of China and Russia marked the first time that Beijing had “explicitly” expressed a “strong opinion directed against NATO and NATO enlargement.”

“China and Russia are closer now than they've ever been before,” Stoltenberg stated.