Beijing: In a scathing attack, China on Friday accused the United States of instigating the Russia-Ukraine conflict, blaming Washington for the expansion of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) to protect itself from any possible aggression from any nation.
“As the culprit and leading instigator of the Ukraine crisis, the US has led NATO to engage in five rounds of eastward expansion in the last two decades after 1999,” Chinese Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told newspersons.
“The number of NATO members increased from 16 to 30, and they have moved eastward more than 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) to somewhere near the Russian border, pushing Russia to the wall step by step,” he added.
Ukraine has long been eager to join the NATO, a military alliance of Western countries, while Russia wants Ukraine to give up that demand and declare itself neutral.
Even as the US and European nations are trying to isolate Russia over its Ukraine invasion, China has refrained from condemning the military action.
“China disapproves of solving problems through sanctions, and we are even more opposed to unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction that have no basis in international law,” Zhao said.
Chinese and European Union leaders are scheduled to hold a virtual summit, which is expected to be dominated by the Ukraine invasion.
