China’s Foreign Ministry Releases “Concept of the Global Security Initiative”

The new document was made public on Feb. 21, the same day that U.S. President Biden gave an aggressive speech in Warsaw, Poland, and Russian President Putin delivered his annual Presidential address to the country’s Federation Assembly. Calling the current period “an era rife with challenges”, it states that the “Cold War mentality, unilateralism, bloc confrontation and hegemonism” must be “resisted and rejected”.

It is imperative to uphold a consensus that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought”, it underscores. The nuclear powers must therefore strengthen dialogue and cooperation to reduce the risk of a nuclear standoff. The document also stresses the need to take “the legitimate security concerns of all countries seriously,” while respecting their sovereignty and territorial integrity, and calls for the resolution of international disputes exclusively through diplomacy.

Regarding the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, China’s new strategy paper emphasizes the need to “support political settlement of hotspot issues such as the Ukraine crisis through dialogue and negotiation.”