‘Unprecedented’ relations: China and Russia urge NATO to halt expansion
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China and Russia have urged against NATO expanding across Europe, as the bloc draws up a sanctions package should Russia invade Ukraine.
Chinese president Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, who arrived in Beijing today for the Winter Olympics, met to discuss bilateral relations and a string of major issues concerning international strategic security and stability, according to a report from Chinese state media.
A joint declaration signed by Xi and Putin said: “The sides oppose further enlargement of NATO and call on the North Atlantic Alliance to abandon its ideologies Cold War approach.”
It comes as the Russian threat to invade Ukraine prompts Sweden and Finland to reconsider joining the North Atlantic treaty.
Swiss opposition leader Ulf Kristersson told a local tabloid he was “absolutely convinced” Sweden would join NATO in the next five years.
On the pair’s relations amid increasing scrutiny from the West, Xi and Putin agreed that “they have indeed become unprecedented. It’s an example of dignified relations that support mutual development”.
In the statement, Xi also called for Taiwan to be recognised as a part of China.
The European Union (EU) has prepared a “robust and comprehensive” package of sanctions, EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen told German and French newspapers Handeslblatt and Les Echos today.
“We have prepared a robust and comprehensive package of financial and economic sanctions,” said von der Leyen, adding that these include “capping access to foreign capital” and “export controls, especially on technical goods”.
The controversial Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline’s operation also formed part of the package, and now depends “on Russia’s behaviour”, von der Leyen added.
“People close to Putin and oligarchs could of course be hit sensitively,” she said. The UK government has also suggested it will sanction Russian oligarchs in the country, as well as slap Russia with its own brand of sanctions should it cross the Ukrainian border.