Page 6 - aruba-today-20200914

A6 WORLD NEWS
Monday 14 SepteMber 2020
Chinese military calls U.S. biggest threat to world peace

BEIJING (AP) — China's De- order."
fense Ministry on Sunday Much of the report was de-
blasted a critical U.S. report voted to analyzing China's
on the country's military strategy toward Taiwan, a
ambitions, saying it is the U.S. ally which China con-
U.S. instead that poses the siders a part of its territory
biggest threat to the inter- to be annexed by force if
national order and world necessary.
peace. China's military capabilities
The statement follows the dwarf those of the island
Sept. 2 release of the an- of 23 million in numerical
nual Defense Department terms, although any inva-
report to Congress on Chi- sion of Taiwan would be
nese military developments complex and would carry
and goals that it said would major political risks, the re-
have "serious implications port said.
for U.S. national interests It also looked at areas
and the security of the in- where the 2 million-mem-
ternational rules-based or- ber PLA, the world's largest
der." standing military, has over-
Defense Ministry spokes- taken the U.S., including
man Col. Wu Qian called in the size of its navy, now
the report a "wanton distor- In this Thursday, Sept. 3, 2015 file photo, Chinese President Xi Jinping is displayed on a screen as the world's largest with ap-
tion" of China's aims and Type 99A2 Chinese battle tanks take part in a parade commemorating the 70th anniversary of proximately 350 ships and
the relationship between Japan's surrender during World War II held in front of Tiananmen Gate in Beijing. submarines compared to
the People's Liberation Associated Press around 293 for the U.S.
Army and China's 1.4 billion China has also built a con-
people. "Rather than reflecting on development of bilateral national order." siderable arsenal of land-
"Many years of evidence itself, the U.S. issued a so- military relations." "Certainly, many factors will based ballistic and cruise
shows that it is the U.S. that called report that made Running to more than 150 determine how this course missiles and has one of
is the fomenter of regional false comments about pages, the Defense De- unfolds," the report said. the world's largest forces
unrest, the violator of the China's normal defense partment report examined "What is certain is that (the of advanced long-range
international order and the and military construction," the PLA's technical capa- ruling Communist Party) has surface-to-air systems, the
destroyer of world peace," he said in the statement. bilities, doctrines and the a strategic end state that it report said.
he said. "We call on the U.S. to view ultimate aims of China's is working towards, which, This year's report comes
U.S. actions in Iraq, Syria, China's national defense military buildup. It said it in- if achieved and its accom- as relations between Bei-
Libya and other countries and military construction cludes becoming a "prac- panying military modern- jing and Washington have
over the past two decades objectively and rationally, tical instrument" of China's ization left unaddressed, hit their lowest ebb in de-
have resulted in the deaths cease making false state- statecraft with an active will have serious implica- cades amid simmering dis-
of more than 800,000 peo- ments and related reports, role in advancing Beijing's tions for U.S. national inter- putes over trade, technol-
ple and displacement of and take concrete actions foreign policy and "aims to ests and the security of the ogy, Taiwan, human rights
millions, Qian said. to safeguard the healthy revise aspects of the inter- international rules-based and the South China Sea.q

Greece, Turkey signal willingness to talk about sea dispute

sea dispute tied to po- in more than a month af- there can be no unilateral
tentially lucrative offshore ter Turkey announced in actions, and that has what
gas deposits. Greek Prime July that it was dispatching Turkey has been doing in
Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis a vessel to work in waters recent weeks," Mitsotakis
welcomed the return of a where Greece claims juris- said.
Turkish survey ship to port diction. NATO intervened, organiz-
Sunday from a disputed "This is a positive first step," ing talks between the two
martime area at the heart Mitsotakis told reporters in countries' militaries to pre-
of the summer standoff be- the northern Greek city of vent a potential conflict.
tween Greece and Turkey Thessaloniki. "If we see signs Turkey had also come un-
over energy rights. Mitso- of deescalation in practice der increasing international
takis said he was ready to ... I will be the first to sit at pressure to withdraw the
try to restart long-stalled the negotiating table." survey ship, with the threat
talks, signaling that the two The deployment of the re- of European Union sanc-
countries could be inching search vessel triggered a tions looming.
In this photo provided by the Greek President's office on Sun- toward negotiations after military build-up in the east- Turkey argues that Greek
day, Sept. 13, 2020, Greece's President Katerina Sakellaropou- weeks of increasingly bel- ern Mediterranean. Nomi- islands close to its coastline
lou arrives at Kastellorizo to attend the celebrations marking
when the southeastern island of Kastellorizo, formally became licose rhetoric. Exploratory nal NATO allies Turkey and should not project mari-
part of Greece. talks between Greece and Greece both dispatched time zones for oil-and-gas
Associated Press Turkey over the continental warships to the area where exploitation, a view not
shelf and exclusive eco- the Oruc Reis was engaged shared by most western al-
By COSTAS KANTOURIS, in the eastern Mediterra- nomic zone rights were last in seismic research and lies. Although the dispute is
ZEYNEP BILGINSOY and nean, Greece and Turkey held in 2016. Turkey's Oruc conducted military exer- decades old, huge offshore
DEREK GATOPOULOS have signaled a willing- Reis research ship returned cises to assert their claims. natural gas sites discovered
THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) ness to start talks aimed at to near the southern port "In areas where there is in recent years have inten-
— After weeks of tensions resolving a long-standing of Antalya for the first time no maritime delimitation, sified the quarrel. q