China says it’s ready for talks with NATO
China on Tuesday said it is ready for talks with NATO after the alliance identified it as a rising threat alongside Russia.
NATO included China in its list of challenges in its recent report on recommendations for internal reform.
“China is not our adversary. Its rise presents an important opportunity for our economies and trade. We need to engage with China on issues such as arms control and climate change. But there are also important challenges to our security”, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday, ahead of a meeting of NATO ministers of foreign affairs.
Stoltenberg said those challenges include China’s vast spending on defence and the global influence it has achieved through strategic infrastructure investment around the world under its Belt and Road Initiative.
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying on Tuesday responded that Beijing was a victim of coercive diplomacy and that its spending on military per capita was lower than many other countries.
“The common values of all mankind that China advocates and adheres to are peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom”, Hua said.
