NATO chief rejects Russia-China claim on stopping NATO enlargement

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg rejected on Monday the claims made by Russia and China on stopping the enlargement process.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda, Stoltenberg called the joint statement of Russia and China “an attempt to deny sovereign nations the right to make their own choices.”

Stoltenberg’s remarks came after China joined Russia for the first time in opposing “further enlargement of NATO” and urged the military alliance in a joint statement issued on Friday to “abandon its ideologized Cold War approached.”

He stressed that every country has the right to be “to be part of an alliance or not our” under international law, and pointed out that NATO’s “open-door policy has been a historic success, spreading freedom and security across Europe.”