BEIJING: China lashed out at NATO’s “smears and attacks” on Tuesday after the defense alliance’s chief accused it of supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine on the eve of a summit in Washington.
US President Joe Biden is hosting leaders of the 32-nation transatlantic alliance for three days from Tuesday, as well as the leaders of Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference ahead of the 75th anniversary summit that their inclusion “demonstrates that our security is not regional, our security is global.”
“And that’s clearly demonstrated in the war in Ukraine where Iran, North Korea, China are supporting and enabling Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said on Monday, according to a NATO transcript.
China’s foreign ministry took aim at the defense group, which was founded in 1949 to provide collective security against the Soviet Union.
“NATO’s so-called security is at the expense of other countries’ security and its actions have brought extremely high security risks to the world and the region,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a regular news conference in Beijing.
“China is firmly opposed to NATO’s smears and attacks on China, to its willingness to shift the blame onto others, as well as NATO’s use of China as an excuse to move eastward into the Asia-Pacific and stir up regional tensions,” he said.
NATO’s leaders are gathering in Washington in the shadow of setbacks in Ukraine and electoral headwinds on both sides of the Atlantic.
Biden is fighting for his political life after a disastrous debate against his Republican presidential rival, NATO skeptic Donald Trump.
The star of the summit is set to be Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is looking for firm signs of support even though NATO will not be extending his country an invitation to join the bloc.
China hits back at NATO’s ‘smears and attacks’ ahead of summit
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China hits back at NATO’s ‘smears and attacks’ ahead of summit
- China’s foreign ministry takes aim at the defense group, which was founded in 1949 to provide collective security against the Soviet Union
Two family members of Mexico’s education secretary killed in shooting
MEXICO CITY: Authorities in the western Mexican state of Colima said they killed three people suspected in the shooting deaths of two family members of Mexico’s secretary of education on Saturday.
Colima, located on Mexico’s Pacific coast, is one of the country’s most violent states. It recorded the highest homicide rate in Mexico in 2023 and 2024, according to the US State Department.
The local prosecutor’s office said officers killed three suspects in the 4:30 am (1030 GMT) shooting of two women, whom Mexico’s Secretary of Public Education Mario Delgado later identified as his aunt and cousin.
They did not identify a motive in the shooting or say whether they were searching for other suspects.
“Deep shock, outrage, and sorrow over the events that occurred this morning in Colima, where my aunt Eugenia Delgado and my cousin Sheila were brutally murdered in their home,” Delgado wrote on X on Saturday.
Officials tracked the suspects’ vehicle to a Colima home on Saturday afternoon and killed three people in a gunfight, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Investigators found weapons and clothing in the suspects’ home linked to the double shooting.
Delgado was appointed education secretary by President Claudia Sheinbaum in 2024. He previously served as national president of the ruling Morena party.
