By Dmitry Antonov
MOSCOW, Jan 15 (Reuters) – Russia said on Thursday that its was unacceptable for the West to keep claiming that Russia and China threatened Greenland, and said the crisis over the territory showed the double-standards of Western powers which claimed moral superiority.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that the United States will take Greenland because unless it does so then Russia and China will – and that the United States does not want them as neighbours.
Since Trump’s threats, Western European leaders have repeatedly said, without citing specific evidence, that Russia and China have designs on Greenland – and used that to argue that NATO needs to defend the Arctic against Moscow and Beijing.
“First they came up with the idea that there were some aggressors, and then that they were ready to protect someone from these aggressors,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said of the West’s actions on Greenland.
“Neither Russia nor China has announced any such plans,” she said, adding that no facts had been presented to support the claim that Russia and China threatened Greenland.
When asked directly by Reuters if Russia had designs on Greenland, Zakharova said: “Why don’t you ask Trump?”
“There are no facts indicating the aggressive plans of Russia and China, nor can there be any,” Zakharova said.
China on Monday urged the United States not to use other countries as an excuse to pursue its own interests, and said China’s activities in the Arctic aim to promote peace, stability, and sustainable development in the region.
The current situation, Zakharova said, “demonstrates with particular acuteness the inconsistency of the so-called ‘rules-based world order’ being built by the West,” Zakharova said.
“Take a bite of what you have prepared – but just don’t choke,” Zakharova said with a smile.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Gleb Stolyarov; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
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