On the eve of the anniversary of the 1999 Nato bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, China has again blamed the bloc’s eastward expansion for the war in Ukraine.
Zhang Jun, China’s ambassador to the United Nations, fired the broadside at a United Nations Security Council meeting on Ukraine on Thursday, more than two months after Russia’s invasion.
Zhang repeated Beijing’s position by calling for a peaceful resolution to the war and for efforts to limit the humanitarian impact of the war.
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Zhang said that following efforts to help Ukrainians leave Mariupol, a southern city besieged by Russian forces, all parties should establish a broader and more efficient means of coordinating humanitarian efforts to ensure smooth evacuations.
“We call on the international community to strengthen macroeconomic policy coordination and work together to effectively regulate and contain the negative spillover effects of the Ukraine conflict,” he said.
Zhang urged the international community to create conditions for the Russia-Ukraine negotiations. The ambassador said the two parties had “built some groundwork” from prior talks, adding that any attempt to benefit from aggravating the conflict would backfire.
He also warned that “all-dimensional and indiscriminate” sanctions subjected people in all countries, especially developing countries, to higher food prices, oil prices and other hefty costs.
“Arbitrary seizure and freezing of foreign exchange reserves of other countries is tantamount to weaponising economic interdependence, which is bringing more uncertainties and perils to the world economy and international relations,” the ambassador said.
