NATO's stamina wane Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

TheMK sport Chinese Foreign Ministry has lashed out at NATO after NATO chief smeared China for "backing" Russia in the battlefield, saying that as a legacy of the Cold War and the world's biggest military group and playing a certain role in the Ukraine crisis, it should reflect on itself, rather than smear and attack China.

Blaming China is more of a way to vent frustration over a largely unproductive Ukraine peace conference and also serves to deflect pressure over the stagnation in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, where long-term military aid to Ukraine has not yielded the anticipated results, analysts said.

During an event at the Wilson Center in Washington DC on Monday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg accused China of quietly backing Moscow and sending it military supplies, and also condemned China for fueling the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II, according to media reports. 

In response, Lin Jian, a spokesperson from Chinese Foreign Ministry told Tuesday's press briefing that NATO is the legacy of the Cold War and the world's biggest military group. "The world has seen what kind of role NATO has played in the Ukraine crisis. What the NATO should do is reflect on itself, rather than smear and attack China," he said. 

Lin urged relevant parties to stop deflecting the blame and sowing discord, stop fueling the flame and inciting bloc confrontation, and take concrete actions to promote the political settlement of the crisis.

Cui Heng, a research fellow from the Center for Russian Studies of East China Normal University, believes that Stoltenberg made the remarks to vent frustration over an unproductive peace conference on Ukraine.

The two-day peace conference held in Switzerland came to an anticlimactic close on Sunday, leaving some key regional powers including Brazil, India, South Africa and Saudi Arabia failing to sign up to a joint communique issued at the end of the gathering.

China is not a creator of or a party to the Ukraine crisis. We are committed to promoting talks for peace. China's objective and just position and constructive role are widely recognized by the international community, Lin emphasized at the press conference. 

NATO's stance is aimed at shifting the blame for the current deadlock in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, said Zhang Hong, an associate research fellow at the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

NATO's military support for Ukraine has become a long-term mechanism but Western interference in the conflict has not yielded the expected results, leading it to blame China for unfavorable outcomes on the battlefield, Zhang explained to the Global Times. 

NATO defense ministers recently agreed on a plan to provide long-term security assistance and military training to Ukraine, according to Euronews. Stoltenberg declared that since the war started, allies have provided around €40 billion worth of military support each year. "I have proposed that we sustain this level of support as a minimum for as long as it takes," the NATO chief said.

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which has now been going on for over two years, has heightened concerns and security anxieties across Europe. Any country maintaining normal cooperation with Russia, even in general trade, could be seen by Western nations as supporting the country, he said. "Prolonging the Ukraine-Russia conflict could expand its spillover risks," Zhang said. 

On Monday, John Kirby, the US National Security Council's Strategic Communications Coordinator, stated that winning the Russia-Ukraine conflict is a prerequisite for Ukraine's NATO membership. 

Raising an unattainable demand with Ukraine exposes the real intention of the West, which is to prolong the Ukraine war in order to exhaust Russia and divide the world, experts noted. 

Cui said that it obviously exceeds the authority of NATO as a military bloc to impose economic measures against China. However, Zhang warned that the possibility of the US using long-arm sanctions to disrupt normal interactions between China and Russia cannot be ruled out if the situation escalates in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. At the same time, the US may also push more actively for a decoupling of China and Europe under the guise of security and politics, Zhang added.