Beijing's UN envoy faults NATO eastward expansion

Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, on Thursday called on the international community to step up efforts to promote a cease-fire in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and work to minimize its humanitarian impact.

In his remarks, which were made during a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Ukraine, Zhang also stressed that the lessons from that crisis "are profound and deserve serious reflections".

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization's repeated eastward expansion after the Cold War has not only failed to make Europe any safer but also sown the seeds of conflict, he said.

NATO claims to be an organization defensive in nature, but it "wantonly launches wars against sovereign countries, causing colossal causalities and humanitarian disasters", the ambassador said.

On May 7, 1999, NATO forces fired a number of precision-guided missiles at the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia, killing three Chinese journalists and injuring more than 20 Chinese diplomats.

Noting that Saturday marks the anniversary of that attack, Zhang said:"The Chinese people will never forget this barbaric atrocity and will never allow such history to repeat itself."

He went on to emphasize that the "security of all countries is indivisible". To base one country's security on the insecurity of other countries is neither reasonable nor operable, he said.

Because the Cold War ended decades ago, NATO should "naturally size up the situation and make necessary adjustments", Zhang said.

"Clinging to the anachronistic doctrine of security and keen to provoke bloc confrontations and create tensions in Europe and even the Asia-Pacific region and the wider world, such practices are as harmful to others as they are deleterious to the perpetrators themselves, and deserve nothing less than China's firm opposition," he said.

"The world does not need a new Cold War, and it cannot afford greater turmoil and division," he said.

teresaliu@chinadailyusa.com