NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday called for China to pay the price for its support of Russia, while encouraging the Western military alliance to supply more weapons to Ukraine.
“It may seem like a paradox, but the path to peace is through more arms to Ukraine,” the NATO chief said in a speech to the Wilson Center, a think tank in Washington.
Mr. Stoltenberg, who will soon step down as NATO Secretary General, is visiting Washington to prepare for the Atlantic Alliance summit to be held in the US capital in July.
He was to be received in the afternoon at the White House by President Joe Biden.
“At some point – and unless China changes course – the Allies must impose a cost,” he said, emphasizing that Beijing “is fueling the largest armed conflict in Europe since the Second World War “.
NATO, led by the United States, is increasingly critical of aid to the Russian war effort provided by China and its companies, which supply components and equipment supporting the defense sector. Russian defense.
He further highlighted the fact that NATO will take over Western military support for Ukraine until now led by Washington, as decided by NATO Defense Ministers last week in Brussels.
The NATO chief also assured that “more than 20 countries” had committed to increasing their military spending to 2% of their GDP, as the alliance has long demanded.
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