U.S., China discuss Ukraine crisis
The Hindu
In second phone call from Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Foreign Minister Wang Yi in two weeks, both offer differing views on crisis
In their second phone call in two weeks, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday exchanged views once again on the Ukraine crisis, the two governments said, with both sides differing in their assessment of the current situation.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Mr. Blinken spoke with Mr. Wang “about Moscow’s premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified war against Ukraine.” “The Secretary noted the world is watching to see which nations stand up for the basic principles of freedom, self-determination and sovereignty,” he said, adding that “he underscored that the world is acting in unison to repudiate and respond to the Russian aggression, ensuring that Moscow will pay a high price.”
Mr. Wang, according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry readout, described the crisis in starkly different terms. This was Mr. Blinken’s second call to Mr. Wang in two weeks, and the Chinese Foreign Minister again underlined his view, expressed when they spoke on February 22, on the need to acknowledge Russia’s broader security concerns.
He said Beijing encouraged direct Russia-Ukraine negotiations and favoured a peaceful settlement. China also encouraged the U.S., NATO, the EU and Russia to hold talks to “address problems that have accumulated over the years” and to “pay attention to the negative impact of NATO’s continuous eastward expansion on the Russian security environment” to build a “balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism”.
Both also discussed Taiwan, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said, with Beijing expressing displeasure at recent U.S. actions and calling on Washington “to stop condoning support for ‘Taiwan independence”
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