The world is not going to be full of peace and understanding soon!

from
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/23/france-and-baltic-states-condemn-china-envoy-remarks-over-ukraine-sovereignty

Baltic states condemn China envoy’s remarks over sovereignty of
ex-Soviet nations
Lu Shaye’s comments raise fresh questions over China’s role in brokering
peace in Ukraine

Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates
Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor
Sun 23 Apr 2023 08.48 EDT

France, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have expressed dismay after
China’s ambassador in Paris questioned the sovereignty not only of
Ukraine, but all the former Soviet Republics including the Baltic states.

Lu Shaye’s remarks in a TV interview late on Friday raise fresh
questions about the faith the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has
placed in China to act as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine.

Lu had been asked whether he considered the peninsula of Crimea, which
was annexed by Russia in 2014, part of Ukraine under international law.

“Even these ex-Soviet Union countries do not have effective status, as
we say, under international law because there’s no international accord
to concretise their status as a sovereign country,” Lu said.

Lu’s comments appeared to brush aside the sovereignty of countries,
including ironically Russia, that formally recognised each other after
the Soviet Union’s dissolution and are represented at the United Nations
and in European security organisations.

Asked if Crimea was part of Ukraine, he said the answer depended on
one’s position, and it was not so simple.

He added: “There is a history here where Crimea was originally part of
Russia. It was Khrushchev who offered Crimea to Ukraine during the
period of the Soviet Union”.

France officially reacted by saying it heard his remarks with dismay and
demanded to know if they reflected China’s official position, “which we
hope not to be the case.”

“We stress our full solidarity with all of our allies and partners
concerned, who have gained their long-awaited independence after decades
of oppression,” a French Foreign Ministry spokesperson said. “The
annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 is illegal under international law.”

Ukraine was recognised “within borders including Crimea in 1991 by the
entire international community, including China, at the fall of the USSR
as a new member state of the United Nations”, Paris said.

The French president’s diplomatic adviser, Emmanuel Bonne, has been
deputed to hold talks with China to explore a possible peace initiative,
a move that has alienated many in Europe.

The Latvian foreign minister, Edgars Rinkēvičs, said the Chinese
ambassador’s comments were “completely unacceptable”.

“We expect [an] explanation from the Chinese side and complete
retraction of this statement,” he said, adding there would be “a strong
and unified response” from the EU at a meeting of European foreign
affairs ministers in Brussels on Monday.

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Estonia’s foreign ministry summoned China’s ambassador to Estonia to
clarify the country’s position over its country’s sovereignty, calling
Shaye’s position “incomprehensible”.

Estonia pointed out that since 1994 China had recognised the Budapest
memorandum agreement under which Russia accepted Ukraine’s borders and
Kyiv agreed to hand over its Soviet-era nuclear weapons.

Lithuania’s foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, said the Chinese
ambassador’s remarks demonstrated why European countries had little
faith in China’s ability to play a constructive role in brokering peace.

“If anyone is still wondering why the Baltic states don’t trust China to
‘broker peace in Ukraine’, here’s a Chinese ambassador arguing that
Crimea is Russian and our countries’ borders have no legal basis,” he
said on Twitter. He said the Chinese ambassador to Lithuania was being
summoned on Monday to provide an explanation.

Vadym Omelchenko, Ukraine’s ambassador to France, said in a Twitter
post: “There’s no place for ambiguity. Crimea is Ukraine. The Soviet
empire no longer exists. History moves on.”

Lu’s comments appeared to contradict China’s position paper on Ukraine
issued in February, which pledges to uphold “the sovereignty,
independence and territorial integrity of all countries … big or small”.

In a related development, Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da
Silva, on a visit to Portugal was forced to make some of his strongest
criticisms of Russia’s invasion, after appearing to be entirely neutral
in the conflict on a visit to China last week.

In Lisbon, he said: “The war should not have started. Russia should not
have invaded, but it did. The fact is that it happened. So instead of
choosing sides, I want to find a third way, the construction of peace.”
Ukrainians protested outside the Brazilian embassy in Lisbon calling
Russia a terrorist state.

Last weekend, Lula said Europe should stop supplying arms to Ukraine
since it was prolonging the conflict, a position that would leave the
aggressor and victim treated in the same way. He made his remarks
shortly after visiting China’s president, Xi Jinping.

The Brazilian president, offering himself as a peace broker, met the
Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, in Brasília last week but has
never met any senior Ukrainians. Lavrov has praised Lula for “his clear
understanding of the genesis of the situation”.

The White House has accused Lula of “parroting Russian and Chinese
propaganda without looking at the facts”. The concern in Washington is
that countries such as Brazil, eager to build their trading relationship
with China, are determined to ignore the Ukraine issue knowing that
China wants Russia protected from defeat.

The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, will set out Britain’s
approach to China in a major speech on Tuesday. No senior British figure
has been to China since the country’s economy opened up after Covid.

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