© AP Photo/Olivier MatthysBeijing believes that regional security should not be guaranteed by strengthening or expanding military blocs, the Mission of the People's Republic of China to the EU noted
"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," the statement emphasized.
"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," the document said.
It noted that "NATO is a Cold War remnant," adding that "China believes that regional security should not be guaranteed by strengthening or expanding military blocs." According to the statement, NATO should "do more to increase mutual trust among countries and maintain regional peace and stability."
On Monday, at a press conference in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that a joint statement issued by China and Russia following the Beijing meeting of the two leaders should be viewed as an attempt to deny sovereign nations the right to make their own choices, stressing that the alliance's doors remained open.
On February 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics. On Friday, he met with his Chinese counterpart XI Jinping. This was the Russian leader's first visit to China since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. During the top level talks, the joint statement by Moscow and Beijing was adopted on international relations entering a new era and on sustainable global development.
Against the backdrop of tensions in relations between Russia and NATO countries, Russia has decided to conduct large-scale military exercises in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, in which detachments of warships of three fleets at once - those of the Black Sea, the North and of the Pacific - will be involved.
According to the information available , three missile cruisers of the Atlant project - Marshal Ustinov, Varyag and Moskva - will be immediately involved in the exercises, the destructive power of which is more than enough to successfully defeat any force in the Mediterranean.
It is not known exactly what the task will be assigned to the detachments of warships in the Mediterranean Sea, however it is interesting to note that relatively recently the United States has tried to threaten Russia with its carrier strike group, also located in the Mediterranean Sea, which does not exclude the possibility that Russian ships will work out precisely the suppression of enemy forces.
By the way, large-scale military exercises will be held not only in the Mediterranean Sea, but also in other regions of the planet: it is planned to involve about 140 ships.