UNITED NATIONS, United States
\nChina and India on Saturday called at the United Nations for a negotiated end to the Ukraine war, stopping short of robust support for traditional ally Russia.
\nAfter a week of pressure at the United Nations General Assembly, Russia\u2019s foreign minister took the General Assembly rostrum to deliver a fiery rebuke to Western nations for what he termed a \u201cgrotesque\u201d campaign against Russians.
\nBut no major nation has rallied behind Russia, including China, which just days before the February invasion of Ukraine had vowed an \u201cunbreakable\u201d bond with President Vladimir Putin.
\nChinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on both Russia and Ukraine to \u201ckeep the crisis from spilling over\u201d and from affecting developing countries.
\n\u201cChina supports all efforts conducive to the peaceful resolution of the Ukraine crisis. The pressing priority is to facilitate talks for peace,\u201d Wang said.
\n\u201cThe fundamental solution is to address the legitimate security concerns of all parties and build a balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture.\u201d
\nDuring his visit to the United Nations, Wang met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, in their first talks since the war began.
\nEarlier this month Putin acknowledged Chinese \u201cconcerns\u201d about Ukraine during a meeting with his counterpart Xi Jinping.
\nUS officials have been heartened by what they see as China\u2019s lack of concrete backing for the war and say that Beijing has declined requests to send military equipment, forcing Russia to rely on North Korea and Iran as its own supplies dwindle.
\nChina\u2019s reaction to Russia is being closely watched for clues on its approach to Taiwan, a self-governing democracy that Beijing claims as its territory.
\nWang held firm that China would take \u201cforceful steps\u201d against any interference, insisting that efforts to prevent \u201creunification\u201d with Taiwan would be \u201ccrushed by the wheels of history.\u201d
\nIndia, unlike China, has a warm relationship with the United States but it has historic ties with Russia, its traditional defense supplier.
\n\u201cAs the Ukraine conflict continues to rage, we are often asked whose side we are on,\u201d said India\u2019s foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
\n\u201cOur answer, each time, is straight and honest — India is on the side of peace and will remain firmly there,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cWe are on the side that calls for dialogue and diplomacy as the only way out.\u201d
\nRussian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a news conference declined to answer whether there has been any pressure from China. In his speech, he sought to cast blame squarely on the West.
\n\u201cThe official Russophobia in the West is unprecedented. Now the scope is grotesque,\u201d Lavrov told the General Assembly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNITED NATIONS, United States China and India on Saturday called at the United Nations for a negotiated end to the Ukraine war, stopping short of robust support for traditional ally Russia. After a week of pressure at the United Nations General Assembly, Russia\u2019s foreign minister took the General Assembly rostrum to deliver a fiery rebuke […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-285648","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n