The Foreign Ministry has urged NATO to correct its wrong perception of China and stop manipulating China-related topics, vowing to firmly safeguard its sovereign security and development interests, and continue contributing to world peace and stability.

The ministry's spokesman Guo Jiakun made the comments on Thursday in response to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte's remark calling on the organization?to spend more in light of "the long-term threat of Russia, the massive build-up of the military in China, and the fact that North Korea, China, Iran, are supporting the war effort in Ukraine".

Hyping up global and regional tensions and vilifying China's normal military development is just another excuse of NATO to significantly increase military spending, reach beyond its boundary and expand its mandate, and attempt to have a presence in the Asia-Pacific, Guo told a daily news conference.

In 2024, the military spending of members of the bloc accounted for 55 percent of global military expenditure, but it still asked its members to justly increase the military spending to 5 percent of GDP in order to build a more lethal NATO, he said, asking "What exactly are their intentions?"

While claiming itself a regional defensive alliance, NATO keeps reaching beyond geopolitical scope defined in its treaty and use Eurasia security connectivity as excuse to reaching out its hands to the Asia-Pacific, he said, adding that regional countries are on high alert.

On the Ukraine crisis, Guo stressed that China has never provided weapons to any party to the conflict, and strictly controls the exports of dual use articles.

China's objective and fair stance, as well as its constructive role has been recognized by the international community, he said.

"If NATO truly cares about the security in Europe and the world, it should stop fanning the flames and stoking confrontation."

He urged the bloc to take a hard look at what it has done, hear the call for justice in the international community, abandon the outdated Cold War mentality, bloc confrontation, as well as the zero-sum game.