Q: On 7 February, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that in the joint statement issued by China and Russia, the two countries called on NATO to stop admitting new members, which is an attempt to deny sovereign nations the right to make their own choices. What is your response?

A: NATO is a Cold War remnant and the world’s largest military alliance. Thirty years after the end of the Cold War, NATO continues to expand its geographical scope and the range of operations and engages in bloc politics and confrontation. This is not conducive to global security and stability. China believes that regional security should not be guaranteed by strengthening or expanding military blocs. We call on NATO to abandon the Cold War mentality and ideological bias, respect the sovereignty, security, interests as well as the diversity of civilizations, history and culture of other countries, take an objective and impartial view of other countries’ peaceful development, and do more to increase mutual trust among countries and maintain regional peace and stability.