The Pentagon is seen from the air in Washington, DC, on March 2, 2022. Photo: AFP

Editor's Note:

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of NATO. The Washington Summit Declaration issued at the NATO summit was filled with Cold War mentality and bellicose rhetoric, which will exacerbate the tense situation in the Asia-Pacific region. Global Times (GT) talked to Jeffrey Sachs (Sachs), a professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. He explained the risks brought to the world by the continuous expansion of NATO led by the US, as well as why the US demonizes China as a threat.

GT: The NATO summit was held in Washington last week. How much support do you think the West can continue to provide to Ukraine? Are Western countries really willing to let Ukraine join NATO?

Sachs: Russia will never let NATO expand to Ukraine, as that would pose a direct and very serious security threat to Russia. NATO in Ukraine would likely mean US military bases, intensified CIA operations, US missile sites, loss of Russia's Black Sea fleet and relentless US covert operations against Russia.

Russia will either defeat Ukraine on the battlefield, or the war will continue indefinitely, or the US and Russia will ultimately escalate to nuclear war. The continuing US attempt to expand NATO to Ukraine is therefore reckless and deeply irresponsible. It is destroying Ukraine.

The US' persistence in arming the Taiwan region despite the very clear and unequivocal objections of China, is similar to the US push to expand NATO to Ukraine despite Russian strong and relentless objections. The US pays no respect to the security concerns of other countries and thereby creates disasters with shocking frequency.

GT: NATO has broken its promise of non-expansion to Eastern Europe and even attempted to expand into the Asia-Pacific region. What risks do you think NATO's expansion has brought to the world?

Sachs: The US security state believes that the US can impose its will on the rest of the world, whether by regime-change operations or war if necessary. This attitude is utterly delusional. The US delusion persists in part because the US operates in a geopolitical bubble with its allies - Canada, Britain, the European Union, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand - and almost entirely ignores the rest of the world. Yet the US alliance constitutes less than 15 percent of the world population, and the US is out of touch and out of reality with regard to the other over 85 percent.

GT: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently stated that China is fueling Europe's "biggest security threat since the end of the Cold War" for Europe, a view echoed also by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. How do you evaluate this viewpoint?

Sachs: Blinken and Stoltenberg are narrow-minded cheerleaders for the US military-industrial complex, especially NATO. Blinken is a shocking failure as Secretary of State since he has proven himself to be utterly incapable of serious diplomacy.

GT: You have repeatedly issued warnings that the world is on the brink of nuclear war. Previously, NATO stated that it was in talks to deploy more nuclear weapons. How do you view this statement and the consequences of increasing the deployment of nuclear weapons?

Sachs: The breakdown of the nuclear arms control regime because of US unilateral actions poses a grave threat to the whole world. The US unilaterally abandoned the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002 and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019. The Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists is now just 90 seconds to midnight, the closest to a nuclear disaster since the clock was launched in 1947. The collapse of the nuclear arms control regime is another case of the collapse of US diplomacy.

GT: From the Russia-Ukraine conflict to the Gaza crisis, how do these events impact the so-called universal values and discourse power of the West?

Sachs: The US rhetoric about "universal or Western values" and the "rules-based order" is now completely ridiculed by the rest of the world outside the US military alliance. The only US values truly on display are war-making and the lack of respect for other countries. The US does not abide by the UN Charter and is very frequently isolated in votes of the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council.

GT: How do you interpret the Global Security Initiative and Global Development Initiative proposed by Chinese leader and their significance for the world?

Sachs: I view both the Global Security Initiative and Global Development Initiative very positively. Both are oriented towards a peaceful, prosperous, multipolar and multilateral world that operates under the UN Charter. China's recent diplomatic initiatives include the reconciliation of Iran and Saudi Arabia, the growth of the BRICS group, the diplomatic support of the Sustainable Development Goals, and the highly successful implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative. These are all practical ways led by China to build a world of peace and prosperity.

GT: Shortly before the NATO summit, China attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit held in Kazakhstan. How do you view the contributions and concepts of China and the US to world peace?

Sachs: China follows the Confucian model of "Harmony with Diversity," and the five principles of peaceful cooperation laid out by China 70 years ago: mutual respect, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in the internal affairs of other nations, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful co-existence. These are important principles that could foster global peace.

GT: Regarding China as the foremost competitor and most consequential geopolitical challenge seems to have become the mainstream view in the US. Why does the US demonize China as a threat? How do you think we should understand China-US relations?

Sachs: China is viewed by the US as a threat for one reason and not a good one. China is very large, very successful, and therefore is an obstacle to US hegemony. The US wants to dominate China. Since this is impossible, China is now seen as an enemy. America's Grand Strategy is to be the world's sole superpower. This is delusional.

GT: You wrote in an article that despite the new global economic realities, the US security state still pursues a grand strategy of "primacy." How do you view the US in attempting to maintain hegemony through the suppression of other countries? What consequences will this bring?

Sachs: The US quest for hegemony since 1991 is arrogant, misguided, and self-destructive. It has led the US into many deadly wars of choice (including Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Ukraine). The aim of hegemony became deeply entrenched in the US foreign policy with the demise of the Soviet Union. Sadly, the US did not accept peace with Russia on the basis of mutual respect. The US demanded Russian subservience. Now, the US is paying for this arrogance, with several lost wars, a massive public debt and destructive wars that the US cannot win.