'There is no treaty on this': Chinese diplomat doubts sovereignty of post-Soviet countries

Chinese Ambassador to France Lu Shae questioned the sovereignty of the countries that left the Soviet Union and doubted that Crimea belonged to Ukraine. The Baltic countries, Ukraine and France issued strong statements condemning the position of the Chinese diplomat. with the BBC.

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Speaking on LCI news channel, Lu Shaye said the former Soviet republics "do not have an effective status in international law" because there is "no international agreement that would materialize their status as a sovereign country."

Regarding Crimea, a Ukrainian territory that Russia annexed back in 2014, he said: “It depends on how you perceive the issue. There is a story. Crimea originally belonged to Russia. It was Khrushchev who gave Crimea to Ukraine during the Soviet Union.”

The Chinese diplomat also called for an end to “disputes” over post-Soviet borders.

On the subject: The Ukrainian military wanted to strike Moscow on the anniversary of the Russian invasion: the United States persuaded them not to do this

Due to the scandal associated with the ambassador's statement, the Chinese Foreign Ministry made a special statement.

“China respects the sovereign state status of the member republics after the collapse of the Soviet Union,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning.

On April 22, the French Foreign Ministry said it had "taken note with concern" of the remarks, asking China to clarify its position.

“After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the international community recognized Ukraine as a new state within the UN - within the borders containing Crimea,” the French Foreign Ministry recalled, separately emphasizing that the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 “according to international law, is an illegal act "

The foreign ministers of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia also strongly condemned the Chinese ambassador's statement.

The head of the Estonian Foreign Ministry, Margus Tsahkna, called the diplomat’s statements “sad” and incomprehensible. The Estonian Foreign Ministry also plans to summon the Chinese Ambassador to Tallinn. “Our goal is to make it clear that such views are unacceptable and that Estonia is a sovereign state,” Tsahkna said.

According to Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, the statement of the Chinese ambassador is one of the reasons why the Baltic countries do not trust China in its “mediation in establishing peace in Ukraine.”

Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics called the ambassador's remarks "completely unacceptable." “We expect clarification from the Chinese side and a complete refutation of this statement,” Rinkevics said.

"Obvious problems with geography"

The Ukrainian Ambassador to France Vadim Omelchenko, in turn, said that the Chinese Ambassador either “has obvious problems with geography” or his statement contradicts the position of official Beijing “on efforts to establish peace in Ukraine on the basis of international law and the purposes and principles of the Charter UN ".

These efforts were also discussed in the joint declaration of China and France, published following the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Beijing in early April. In it, the parties pledged to “support all efforts to restore peace in Ukraine.”

The reaction of Kyiv was also not long in coming.

“All post-Soviet countries have a clear sovereign status, enshrined in international law. Except, by the way, for Russia, which fraudulently took a seat on the UN Security Council,” wrote Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Office of the Ukrainian President, on Twitter. “It’s strange to hear from a representative of a country that is scrupulous about its thousand-year history an absurd version of the “history of Crimea.” If you want to be a great political player, don’t retell the propaganda of Russian outsiders.”

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On April 24, almost 80 members of the European Parliament signed an open letter addressed to French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna demanding that Lu Shai be recognized as persona non grata, since his Friday comments “go beyond the scope of acceptable diplomatic discourse.”

China's reaction

The Chinese Foreign Ministry also reacted to the diplomatic scandal.

According to the ministry, China respects the sovereign status of all the countries that were part of the USSR, and Beijing's position on Crimea has not changed.

Officially, China did not recognize the annexed peninsula as part of Russia.

Bloomberg reports that the Chinese Embassy in France has deleted the transcript of the interview with the ambassador on its WeChat account. The interview was not published on the official website of the embassy.

History of the Crimea Treaties

On February 19, 1954, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a decree on the transfer of the Crimean region from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR. “Taking into account the territorial attraction of the Crimean region to the Ukrainian SSR, the commonality of the economy and close economic and cultural ties between the Crimean region and the Ukrainian SSR.” - the document said.

On April 26, 1954, the session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR approved changes to the Constitution of the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR on the composition of their territories.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine and Russia signed several new treaties that recognized the territory of the states as of 1991.

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In 2014, after Russian troops entered Crimea and took control of major military and government facilities, Russia annexed Crimea.

Only six countries in the world recognize Crimea as part of Russia: Venezuela, Nicaragua, Syria, Afghanistan, North Korea and Cuba. The annexation of Crimea has been repeatedly condemned by resolutions of the UN General Assembly.

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