BEIJING (Dispatches) – China has issued a warning about the “risks” of nuclear war in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin saying that Moscow’s strategic nuclear forces are “in a state of full readiness”.
Putin said during his address that the chances of nuclear war would increase if Western nations send troops to Ukraine, as suggested by French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this week.
Putin also said Russia has “weapons that can hit targets on their territory” and that “threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilization. Don’t they get that?”
Mao Ning, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, responded to Putin’s remarks during a press conference, Newsweek reported.
“In January 2022, leaders of the five nuclear-weapon states issued a joint statement, affirming that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” she said. “China believes that all nuclear weapon states need to embrace the idea of common security and uphold global strategic balance and stability.”
Mao noted, “Under the current circumstances, parties need to jointly seek de-escalation and lower strategic risks.”
Addressing parliament and other members of the country’s elite on Thursday, Putin, 71, repeated his accusation that the West is bent on weakening Russia, and he suggested Western leaders did not understand how dangerous their meddling could be in what he cast as Russia’s own internal affairs.
“Western nations must realize that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory. All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilization. Don’t they get that?!” said Putin.
Putin, who was speaking ahead of a March 15-17 presidential election when he is certain to be re-elected for another six-year term, lauded what he said was Russia’s vastly modernized nuclear arsenal, the largest in the world.
Visibly angry, Putin suggested Western politicians recall the fate of those, like Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler and France’s Napoleon Bonaparte who unsuccessfully invaded his country in the past.
“But now the consequences will be far more tragic,” said Putin. “They think it (war) is a cartoon,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also slammed Western countries’ intention to interfere in Russia’s internal affairs, stressing that Russia will independently choose its own path of development.
Russian people will defend their rights to live in peace and choose the path of national development on their own, he said.