The Ukraine crisis tops the agenda of this year's World Peace Forum, hosted by China's Tsinghua University. At a panel discussion, scholars from Russia, China, the UK, and France shared their views on the immediate and long-term impacts of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, and how it will influence the security in Europe. Russian academician Alexander Dynkin said he thinks the conflict might last for years, as he still hasn't seen any sign of negotiations. French scholar Pascal Boniface said one of the most obvious impacts of the conflict is that NATO seems to become more important to Europe, as the Northern European countries like Sweden and Finland are joining the alliance.
ROBIN NIBLETT Director, Chief Executive Royal Institute of International Affairs, UK "A number of European countries now believe they are under existential threat from Russia. The Baltic states, Poland, some in central Eastern Europe now believe and have seen and have witnessed the way Russian forces act on the basis of Russian diplomacy, and fear this could be them next. So, you have a complete change in the threat perception amongst many of those states closest to Russia."
FENG ZHONGPING Director, Institute of European Studies Chinese Academy of Social Sciences "Probably the whole world is going to make a critical choice. Are we going to see the world returning to the Cold War nightmare? We just enjoyed post-Cold War for 30 years. Please let's all together refuse the Cold War coming back, not just in Europe, but in the whole world."
Editor: Guo Lili
