Former Australian PM criticizes NATO chief as "supreme fool," "American agent" for plaguing Asia

SYDNEY, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating has criticized Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Jens Stoltenberg for being a "supreme fool" and "American agent," as the military alliance is seeking expansion into Asia.

In a statement released by the public policy journal platform Pearls and Irritations on Monday, Keating pointed out that NATO's continued existence after and at the end of the Cold War has already denied peaceful unity to the broader Europe, and the Europeans have been fighting each other for the better part of 300 years, including giving two World Wars in the last century.

"Exporting that malicious poison to Asia would be akin to Asia welcoming the plague upon itself. With all of Asia's recent development amid its long and latent poverty, that promise would be compromised by having anything to do with the militarism of Europe -- and militarism egged on by the United States," said Keating.

He underlined that of all the people on the international stage, the supreme fool among them is Stoltenberg, who by instinct and by policy is simply an accident on its way to happen.

"Stoltenberg conducts himself as an American agent more than he performs as a leader and spokesperson for European security. Whatever his views on and from Europe, Stoltenberg does not represent the second largest European state, France," Keating noted.

He believes that French President Emmanuel Macron is right to warn NATO away from any expansion into Asia.

"NATO is a military organization, not a civil one, and an organization focused on Europe and the Atlantic," Keating stressed.