Stoltenberg warned China against lethal aid to Russia

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday warned China against supplying lethal weapons to Russia.

Recall that the Chinese leader Xi Jinping is visiting Moscow.

“We have not seen evidence that China is supplying lethal weapons to Russia, but we have seen indications that a request from Russia has taken place and that this issue is being considered in Beijing by Chinese authorities,” Stoltenberg told reporters at a news conference. conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels. “China should not provide lethal assistance to Russia: that would be tantamount to supporting an illegal war.”

The alliance chief also said on Tuesday that of the alliance’s 30 countries, seven have reached NATO’s military spending target of 2% of GDP, and called on allies to increase their military spending as soon as possible. as possible.

“Without a doubt, we need to do more, and we need to do it faster. The pace we have when it comes to increasing defense spending is not fast enough,” Stoltenberg said. “In a more dangerous world, we need to invest more in defence.”

According to Stoltenberg, the alliance initially expected two more countries to achieve the above goal.

“But while several allies’ GDP grew more than expected, two allies we expected at 2% are now just below 2%,” he said.

Stoltenberg did not specify which countries had achieved the above target, but referred to NATO’s annual report, which will be released later on Tuesday.

Almost a year after Russia invaded Ukraine, NATO allies began talks a few weeks ago on how to adjust the defense spending target.

A decision is expected to be made at the NATO summit in Lithuania in July, and Stoltenberg said that in future the 2% target would be seen as a lower limit, not an upper limit.