China says NATO is in 'new wave of madness'

NATO logo banners in front of Brussels headquarters. Archival photoMOSCOW, May 18. The Chinese publication «Huanqiu shibao» spoke about the «new wave of madness» of NATO, the consequences of which «will take a long time to deal with.» Thus, the newspaper reacted to the plans of Finland and Sweden to join the North Atlantic alliance. With the «expansion to the north» or the sixth «expansion to the east» of NATO, the West is pressing on Russia more than ever, the newspaper notes. In contrast to the successive inclusion of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in the alliance after the collapse of the Soviet Union, «expansion to the north» to include the neutral countries of Finland and Sweden will cause a much more serious contraction of Russia's strategic space. The country will be forced out of Europe even more. NATO is a product of the Cold War, and its new wave of expansion will also be a «new wave of madness» aimed at enjoying the dividends of the Cold War. The alliance, the article argues, seeks to expand the security perimeter after Western civilization «failed» to expand through economic globalization, a move necessary for the myth of «West-centrism» to continue. The search for enemies, the fabrication of threats and the destruction of aliens — this is the logic of expansion that NATO demonstrates, the authors of the material are sure. NATO seeks the legitimacy of its existence through expansion and the creation of conditional enemies, but in fact it could not avoid the logic «who is stronger is right «, summarizes «Huanqiu shibao».In China, they talked about the trap that NATO is preparing for Finland and Sweden The organization's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and US Ambassador Julianne Smith supported this idea. On Sunday, both countries announced they were applying for membership in the alliance. In Stockholm and Helsinki, the decision was made against the backdrop of a Russian special operation in Ukraine. The head of the alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, said that the consideration of applications would be carried out in an expedited manner. Russia launched a special operation in Ukraine on February 24. Russian President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, as of March 25, the Russian Armed Forces completed the main tasks of the first stage of the special operation — they significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly noted that NATO is aimed at confrontation. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that further expansion of the alliance would not bring greater security to Europe, NATO has an aggressive character. At the same time, he noted that he does not consider the entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO an existential threat to Russia.Read the full text of the article on the InoSMI website >>