UNITED NATIONS, July 14. /TASS/. The North Atlantic Alliance is "the source of all misfortune" in the world, Chinese Permanent Representative to the United Nations Zhang Jun said, strongly rejecting NATO’s accusations against China.

In a communique issued at NATO’s annual summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 11, the assembled allies expressed concern about China’s growing nuclear potential and Beijing’s purportedly insufficient efforts in the field of nuclear arms control. The document also claimed that the deepening strategic partnership between China and Russia ran counter to the alliance’s values and interests.

"NATO calls itself a defensive alliance but it encourages its members to keep increasing their military spending and to carry out military activities around the world," the Chinese envoy pointed out. "It has interfered in the affairs of other countries, incited wars, dropped bombs on diplomatic missions, killed innocent civilians and left its filthy footprints behind itself wherever it went," Zhang stated. "Numerous facts demonstrate that it is NATO that is the true source of all misfortune [in the world]," he added.

The head of China’s UN mission emphasized that, "certain NATO countries use double standards, deploy weapons to other countries and exacerbate regional tensions."

"Contrary to the claim of its regional nature, NATO <...> projects its power over the entire world, moving eastward to the Asia-Pacific region," the diplomat noted. "They make claims about protecting a rules-based order, but they have repeatedly violated international rules and the basic norms of international relations," he said. "It is NATO that needs to reassess its values," Zhang concluded.