Beijing is navigating a complex position as the crisis in Ukraine intensifies, attempting to balance deepening ties with Moscow with its practiced foreign policy of staunchly defending state sovereignty.
In a brief statement at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council Monday night, China’s UN Ambassador Zhang Jun said Beijing welcomed and encouraged every effort for a diplomatic solution, adding that all concerns should be treated on the “basis of equality.”
“The current situation in Ukraine is the result of many complex factors. China always makes its own position according to the merits of the matter itself. We believe that all countries should solve international disputes by peaceful means in line with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter,” Zhang said.
The security council meeting comes as world leaders desperately try to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine, which saw a rapid shift when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces into two breakaway Moscow-backed territories after recognizing them as independent — a move Western officials suggest would provide a pretext to a broader invasion of Ukraine.
Russia has for weeks said that it would not invade Ukraine, and in the security council meeting defended its actions as efforts “to protect and preserve those people” living in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic (DPR and LPR).
The display of solidarity has not gone unnoticed in the West. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen referred to Xi and Putin’s recent joint statement in strongly-worded remarks at the Munich Security…
Source : cnn
