Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Thursday that some NATO officials have defamed China's normal military development in order to justify NATO's substantial increase in military spending. He said that while NATO claims to be a regional organization, it has been using the interconnection between European and Asian security as a pretext to repeatedly extend its reach into the Asia-Pacific. Guo said that the international community sees this clearly, and Asia-Pacific nations are highly vigilant about it.

Guo also refuted NATO officials' claim on the Ukraine issue and stressed that China has consistently advocated for peace talks, actively promoted a political resolution to the crisis, never provided weapons to parties in conflict, and strictly controlled the export of dual-use items.