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China’s former US envoy Cui Tiankai slams Europe for ‘mismanaging’ own security situation, points to Asian wisdom
- Asia should learn ‘a very important something from your lack of success’, Cui Tiankai tells European defence chiefs at Shangri-La Dialogue
- Asian way allows nations to follow their own policies and this has worked for decades, Cui says during panel discussion at Singapore security conference
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Jack Lauin Singapore
Europe had “mismanaged” its own security and should look to the Asia-Pacific for guidance, a former Chinese ambassador to Washington told Asia’s top annual defence conference on Saturday, as he rejected a call for China to speak to Russia as an “older brother”.
“I don’t think you are managing effectively and constructively your security situation,” Cui Tiankai said during a panel discussion at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
“A better word for it will be ‘mismanaging’ it. You see the outcome: it’s hurting everybody.”
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The panel on managing security in the Euro-Atlantic and Asia-Pacific regions was also attended by Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov, his Dutch counterpart Kajsa Ollongren, and the governor of the National Resilience Institute of Indonesia, Andi Widjajanto.
China has published a 12-point position paper that says peace talks are the only way to end the Ukraine war. The West has been sceptical of the proposals, saying close ties with Russia made China unsuitable as a peacemaker.
Cui, who was China’s ambassador to the United States from 2013 to 2021, said the regional approach to peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific had worked for decades, despite a few hotspots here and there, unlike the approach taken by Europe.
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