LUXEMBOURG
\nChina respects the status of former Soviet member states as sovereign nations, its foreign ministry said on Monday, after comments by its envoy to Paris triggered an uproar among European capitals.
\nSeveral EU foreign ministers had said earlier that comments by ambassador Lu Shaye \u2014 in which he appeared to question the sovereignty of Ukraine and other former Soviet states \u2014 were unacceptable and had asked Beijing to clarify its stance.
\nAsked about his position on whether Crimea was part of Ukraine or not, Lu said in an interview aired on French TV on Friday that historically it was part of Russia and had been offered to Ukraine by former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
\n\u201cThese ex-USSR countries don\u2019t have actual status in international law because there is no international agreement to materialize their sovereign status,\u201d Lu added.
\nLu has earned himself a reputation as one of China\u2019s \u201cwolf warrior\u201d diplomats, so called for their hawkish and abrasive style.
\nHis latest comments were \u201ctotally unacceptable,\u201d Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky told reporters ahead of a Luxembourg meeting of EU foreign ministers. \u201cI hope the bosses of this ambassador will make these things straight.\u201d
\nSeveral other EU ministers also called the comments unacceptable, and Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said the three Baltic countries \u2014 all formerly part of the Soviet Union \u2014 would summon Chinese representatives to officially ask for clarification and check if its position had changed.
\nLuxembourg\u2019s foreign minister Jean Asselborn called Lu\u2019s remarks a \u201cblunder\u201d and said efforts were being made to calm things down.
\nAsked if Lu\u2019s stance represented China\u2019s official position, China\u2019s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that Beijing respected the status of the former Soviet member states as sovereign nations following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
\nMao told a regular news briefing that it was her remarks on sovereignty that represented China\u2019s official government stance.
\nHer statement appeared to be an effort to distance Beijing from Lu\u2019s comments and ease the tension with Brussels.
\nChina has been \u201cobjective and impartial\u201d on issues of sovereignty, she said.
\nA French official said a \u201cvery firm\u201d discussion would take place with the Chinese ambassador at the French foreign ministry later on Monday.
\nLu has been summoned to the foreign ministry several times in the past, including for suggesting France was abandoning old people in nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic and for calling a respected China scholar at a French think-tank a \u201cmad hyena.\u201d
\nEU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that the 27-nation bloc would, at Monday\u2019s meeting \u201cassess and recalibrate strategy toward China,\u201d and that Lu\u2019s comments would be part of the discussion.
\n\u201cWe will have to continue discussions about China, it is one of the most important issues of our foreign policy,\u201d he said.
\nEU leaders would discuss the bloc\u2019s stance toward China and its future relations with Beijing during their next summit in June, EU Council President Charles Michel said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LUXEMBOURG China respects the status of former Soviet member states as sovereign nations, its foreign ministry said on Monday, after comments by its envoy to Paris triggered an uproar among European capitals. Several EU foreign ministers had said earlier that comments by ambassador Lu Shaye \u2014 in which he appeared to question the sovereignty of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327308,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-327281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n