BEIJING, May 18. /TASS/. Ukraine should not become a frontline for opposing great powers, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Thursday.

In response to a TASS request to comment on the words of former US Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, the Chinese diplomat said: "China's position on the Ukrainian issue has always been clear: We believe that Ukraine should not become a frontline in the confrontation between the major powers. In the current situation, all parties should remain calm and restrained and avoid actions that could escalate and complicate the crisis."

According to the Chinese diplomat, it is necessary to build a balanced, effective and sustainable European security architecture through dialogue and consultation, and to find a solution that promotes long-term stability in Europe.

On May 17, The Economist magazine published an interview with Henry Kissinger, former US Secretary of State (1973-1977) and National Security Adviser to two US presidents (1969-1975), who will turn 100 years old on May 27. In the interview, the doyen of US diplomacy and veteran practitioner of geopolitics said that Ukraine should become a member state of NATO. According to him, Ukraine’s accession to the North Atlantic Alliance would be in the interests of both Kiev and Moscow, and would serve as a guarantee against future attempts by the Ukrainian leadership to resolve territorial disputes by military means.

Kissinger acknowledged that he had changed his point of view about Ukraine's potential membership in NATO. According to the senior American political figure, he would like to avoid a situation wherein Ukraine would become a non-aligned neutral state.

Ukraine's potential membership in NATO

On the night of May 15, the Washington Post reported, quoting sources, that the NATO countries had decided not to send Ukraine an invitation to become a member of the alliance at its summit in Vilnius, but are discussing the possibility of stepping up cooperation with Kiev and potentially setting deadlines for its entry into the military bloc. According to the authoritative US publication, a consensus exists among the alliance’s members that, in spite of Kiev's fervent pleas, NATO will not be extending an official invitation to Ukraine to join the bloc during the Vilnius summit on July 11-12.

NATO adopted a political declaration at the Bucharest summit in April 2008 that Ukraine would eventually become a NATO member, but declined to provide a membership action plan (MAP), the first step in a prospective member country's legal procedure for joining the organization. In February 2019, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) approved amendments to Ukraine's constitution enshrining its NATO aspirations into law. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has repeatedly stated that Kiev was seeking to obtain an understanding of a specific date by which Ukraine could expect to join the alliance.