HEADLINE-ASIA GEO POLITICS | CHINA, RUSSIA OFFICIALS: Foreign forces out to stoke turmoil in Asia
FILE – The U.S. carrier USS Ronald Reagan is escorted as it arrives in Busan, South Korea on Sept. 23, 2022.
The American aircraft carrier was due to make a port call in Vietnam on Sunday, June 25, 2023, a rare visit by one of the U.S. Navy’s biggest ships that comes as Washington and Beijing both are stepping up efforts to bolster ties with Southeast Asian nations. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)
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BEIJING: Top Chinese and Russian officials warned on Monday that foreign forces were seeking to sow turmoil in Asia and beyond as they opened an international defense conference in Beijing.
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Beijing has billed this week’s Xiangshan Forum as its answer to Singapore’s Shangri-La Dialogue and says representatives of 90 countries are taking part, including Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
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Memento Maxima Digital MarketingChina is holding the forum without a sitting defense chief, having abruptly announced the unexplained sacking of minister Gen. Li Shangfu.
Speaking at the conference’s opening ceremony, Zhang Youxia, one of China’s most senior military officials, painted a grim picture of the international outlook, blaming countries he did not name for the turmoil.
“As we look across the world today, hotspot issues are arising one after another. The pain of war, chaos and turmoil, and loss of life are constantly playing out,” Zhang said.
“Some countries, for fear that the world may stabilize, deliberately create turmoil, interfere in regional issues, interfere in other countries’ internal affairs, and instigate color revolutions,” he said.
“Behind the scenes, they hand out knives and think nothing of provoking people into wars, ensuring that they’re the ones who benefit from the chaos,” he added.
But Zhang also said China was seeking to improve military-to-military ties with the United States, with whom tensions have soared over the disputed South China Sea and Beijing’s drills around self-ruling, democratic Taiwan.
“We are also willing to develop China-US military relations in accordance with the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation,” he told delegates.
Speaking after Zhang, Shoigu also warned that Washington was seeking to provoke instability in Asia.
“Having provoked an acute crisis in Europe, the West is trying to expand the crisis potential in the Asia Pacific,” Shoigu told delegates.
“Direct involvement of countries with nuclear arsenals multiplies the strategic risks,” he said.
“The West’s line toward escalation with Russia poses a risk of direct conflict between nuclear powers, which will result in catastrophic consequences,” Shoigu added.
China has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has deepened economic, diplomatic and military cooperation with Moscow since that war began on Feb. 24, 2022.
Russian President Vladimir Putin this month paid a two-day visit to China, his first outside the former Soviet Union this year and part of the Kremlin’s drive to strengthen its economic partnerships across Asia.
And Zhang — who embraced Shoigu on the sidelines of the forum — pledged on Monday that Beijing would seek to “deepen strategic cooperation and coordination between the Chinese and Russian militaries.”
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