Time to jettison out-dated geopolitical thinking: China Daily editorial

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday appealed for an immediate cease-fire and a "return to the path of dialogue and negotiations", arguing that the "peace-keeping" troops Russia has sent into Donetsk and Lugansk "are not impartial".

The UN, he said, remains fully committed to supporting Ukraine's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized boundaries.

For Beijing, which has friendly ties with both Russia and Ukraine, what is happening between the two is concerning and it hopes the present security quagmire can be resolved, as there are serious security concerns and issues to be addressed between Russia and Ukraine as well as Russia and the European Union and the United States. Until those concerns and issues are properly addressed, there is unlikely to be lasting peace in that part of the world.

Noting the trajectory of the evolution of the issue has to do with the failure to execute Minsk II — the 2015 multi-party agreement on implementing a cease-fire arrangement brokered the previous year in Minsk, the capital of Belarus — Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in a telephone talk with US State Secretary Antony Blinken on Tuesday, called on all parties to exercise restraint, keep in mind the importance of implementing the principle of the indivisibility of security and to resolve their differences through dialogue.

He also reiterated that the Chinese government's position on the issue has been consistent — all country's reasonable security concerns deserve respect and the purpose and principles of the UN Charter should be preserved.

Among the hazardous legacies of the Cold War, out-dated geopolitical thinking that defined that bygone era may be the most dangerous culprit responsible for many of the present-day world's troubles.

It is those who stubbornly view the world through the prism of that era and who approach today's state-to-state relations with yesterday's tools and mindset who are the architects of the present crisis.

And, not content with the extent of their trouble-making by besieging a historically insecure Russia, Cold War warriors of the West are seeking to reverse the trend of multipolarity by fabricating the impression of a China-Russia geopolitical monolith.

Beijing and Moscow do enjoy good relations and have a comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination, and it is therefore natural that Beijing should call for Russia's genuine security concerns to be heeded. But that does not mean that the two countries form a united threat to the West as those mired in the past wish to portray in their bid to manipulate the gullible.

The Ukraine crisis is a significant moment for the world as it presents a fork in the road when the world can either continue on a path toward the annihilative potentialities of the past or take a step forward toward the possibilities of drawing a line under decades of suspicion and hostility.