bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

Western leaders on Saturday said Russia and China were seeking to “replace the existing international rules” with their own order, as Beijing backed Moscow over its showdown with Nato.
Russia has all but encircled Ukraine with its huge troop build-up and US President Joe Biden has warned that Vladimir Putin plans an invasion within days.
Moscow is using the threat to invade Ukraine to demand a halt to Nato expansion and what it calls “Cold War” ideologies.
At a closely choreographed appearance in Beijing for the Winter Olympics, Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping had put up a united front against Nato expansion.
Biden convinced Putin has decided to invade Ukraine, says Kyiv likely target
“For the first time we now see Beijing joining Moscow in calling on Nato to stop admitting new members,” noted the alliance’s chief Jens Stoltenberg, speaking at the Munich Security Conference.
“It is an attempt to control the fate of free nations, to rewrite the international rule book and impose their own authoritarian models of governance,” he warned.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen had stronger words, accusing Moscow of a “blatant attempt” to rewrite the global order.
Russia and China are seeking to “replace the existing international rules – they prefer the rule of the strongest to the rule of law, intimidation instead of self-determination,” she told the Munich conference.
Addressing the same gathering via video-link , Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Russia’s concerns “should also be respected.”
“Ukraine should be a bridge linking East and West, not a front line,” Wang said.
“All parties have the right to raise their concerns, while the reasonable concerns of Russia should also be respected and heeded.”


China has in recent years been in the crosshairs of the West over its human rights record, including its alleged abuse of Uygurs, which has also sparked a US-led Western diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics.
China enjoyed plentiful support from the Soviet Union – the precursor to the modern Russian state – after the establishment of Communist rule in 1949, but the two socialist powers later fell out over ideological differences.
Relations got back on track as the Cold War ended in the 1990s, and the pair have pursued a strategic partnership in recent years that has seen them work closely on trade, and geopolitical issues.
The escalating tensions with the West have further bolstered ties between the world’s most populous nation and the world’s largest.
Nato expansion to blame for Russia tensions, China says
Speaking in Munich on Saturday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned against viewing the world through Cold War lenses, as he assessed that nations are no longer divided into a communist and a capitalist half since the 1990s.
“There are now only capitalist countries on the globe, but North Korea. And if you see it like this, the difference between the states is about autocracy, about the way how we rule our countries, about democracy,” he said.
“It is absolutely clear that we are going into a world that is multipolar,” he said, adding that “you can be sure that other upcoming or already great nations of Asia will not accept” any attempts by China or Russia to build up their own spheres of domination or interest.
“Not Korea, not Japan, not Vietnam, not Indonesia, not Malaysia,” he warned.


Hong Kong police arrest Russian woman over Tesla car attack, brandishing knife

Venezuela’s furious streets forces are angry, armed and asking questions

‘We do not want to be Americans,’ Greenland parliament tells US

US seizes fifth tanker as Washington escalates bid to control Venezuela’s oil

Russia

Nato chief says Russia and China seeking to ‘rewrite international rule book’

Ukrainian soldiers take part in military exercises at the base of the Zaporizhzhya Separate Territorial Defence Battalion in Saporischschja. Photo: Ukrinform/dpa

Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday. Photo: dpa

US wary of China ‘laying groundwork’ for using Russia’s Ukraine playbook in Asia, General Kenneth S. Wilsbach says

A Ukrainian serviceman walks in a trench at a frontline position in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine. Photo: AP

General Kenneth S. Wilsbach is the commander of US Pacific Air Forces. Photo: YouTube

A drill by the People’s Liberation Army Navy in the South China Sea. Photo: Weibo

Joe Biden convinced Vladimir Putin has decided to invade Ukraine, says Kyiv is likely target

A Ukrainian Naval Infantry Corps soldier rides a tank during drills at a training ground at an unknown location in a picture released on Friday. Photo: Ukrainian Naval Forces via Reuters

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meets members of the country’s armed forces at combat positions near the line of separation from Russian-backed rebels in the Donetsk region on Thursday. Photo: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service via Reuters

An image released on Friday shows a Russian “Moskva” cruiser taking part in naval exercises outside the Crimean port of Sevastopol. Photo: Russian Defence Ministry via AFP

News

World

Europe

Russia & Central Asia


Jens Stoltenberg told the Munich Security Conference that Moscow and Beijing are ‘attempting to impose their own authoritarian models of governance’
The West has accused Russia of using the threat to invade Ukraine to demand a halt to Nato expansion



Jens Stoltenberg told the Munich Security Conference that Moscow and Beijing are ‘attempting to impose their own authoritarian models of governance’.


China-Russia relations

Nato

Ukraine

Vladimir Putin