China supports the statement by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov about the negative role of the military alliances AUKUS (Australia, Great Britain, USA) and Quad (USA, Japan, India and Australia) created by the United States in the Asia-Pacific region (APR).This was announced at a press conference on Friday by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.
"This statement reflects the common concerns of most countries in the Asia-Pacific region. AUKUS and Quad are narrow cliques that are selective and closed, and also proclaim the mentality of the Cold War era and zero-sum games," he said. "This will provoke a regional arms race, aggravate the situation and undermine regional solidarity and cooperation," the diplomat added.
"Regional countries should exercise a high degree of vigilance against attempts to dilute or undermine the central role of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and together resist any actions that violate international justice or provoke discord and confrontation in the region," the official representative of the Foreign Ministry concluded.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at the 29th Assembly of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy on Saturday that the AUKUS and Quad alliances being created by the United States are eroding the existing formats of cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region under the auspices of ASEAN. The new Indo-Pacific strategy in the AUKUS format, according to the minister, is aimed at the collapse of "a system that relied on the need to respect the indivisibility of security and openly declared its goal to contain China."
