BEIJING, May 6. /TASS/. Furthering NATO expansion amid the current crisis in Ukraine would be akin to fixing one mistake by creating another and would result in a larger disaster, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng cautioned on Friday.
"Resolving a crisis through further NATO enlargement will be an attempt to correct one mistake with another. It will merely lead to a greater catastrophe," he said at a video conference forum: ‘Seeking Peace and Development: An Online Dialogue of World Centers of Expertise From 20 Countries.
The top Chinese official pointed out that this logic was rooted in the Cold War-era mindset of some Western elites.
"It is their model. Their sole goal is to inflict defeat on someone who is not one of them and to maintain their hegemony. We have been witnessing this scenario across the entire world in recent years," the diplomat pointed out.
On February 24, Putin announced a special military operation in Ukraine in response to a request for help from the heads of the Donbass republics. After that, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and some other countries imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia.
Finland and Sweden seeking NATO membership has been a major talking point since early April. Washington had stated earlier that the issue of their potential membership in NATO might be considered at the US-led bloc’s next summit in Spain in late June.