China’s Foreign Ministry reacted on Friday to US President Joe Biden’s comment that any country that supported an invasion of Russia would be “stained by association”. Responding to Australia’s criticism of maintaining trade relations with Russia, the country said it was based on “mutual respect”.
Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a daily press conference. According to the agency’s representative, China conducts “normal trade and cooperation with Russia”.
“China opposes all illegal and unilateral sanctions and expects relevant parties to handle China-related issues in a way that does not harm China,” the minister said.
Australia imposed further sanctions on Russia on Friday, targeting several of its elite citizens and lawmakers, and declared it “unacceptable” that China was easing trade restrictions with Moscow at this time.
“We will work together with our partners for an ongoing wave of sanctions and we will continue to increase that pressure on Russia,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison told a news conference.
Stains
Regarding Biden’s statement, Wenbin said that “it was the countries that interfered in the internal affairs of others that would see their reputations tarnished.”
On Thursday (24), as Ukraine was attacked by Russian troops, Biden made a statement in which he said that the US and its allies are applying “the biggest economic sanction in history” against Russia.
The American president said that the war against Ukraine “was not provoked” and that it was “premeditated by Putin”, not ruling out applying sanctions directly against the Russian president in the future.
“Putin is the aggressor and the one who chose war,” Biden said. “Today, I am authorizing strong sanctions and new limits on what can be exported to Russia, with heavy costs to Russia now and over time,” he added.
understand the conflict
After months of military escalation and intemperance on the Ukrainian border, Russia attacked the Eastern European country. At dawn this Thursday (24), Russian forces began to bomb several regions of the country – follow the repercussion live on CNN.
Hours earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized a “special military operation” in the Donbas region (eastern Ukraine, where the breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk are located, which he recognized as independent).
What was seen in the following hours, however, was an attack on almost the entire Ukrainian territory, with explosions in several cities, including the capital Kiev.
According to Ukrainian officials, dozens of deaths have been confirmed in the armies of both countries.
In his speech before the attack, Putin justified the action by saying that Russia could not “tolerate threats from Ukraine”. Putin urged Ukrainian soldiers to “put down your weapons and go home”. The Russian leader further stated that he will not accept any kind of foreign interference.
This attack on the former Soviet neighbor threatens to destabilize Europe and involve the United States.
Russia has been tightening its military grip around Ukraine for the past year, amassing tens of thousands of troops, equipment and artillery at the country’s gates.
In recent weeks, diplomatic efforts to defuse tensions have been unsuccessful.
The escalation in the years-long conflict between Russia and Ukraine has triggered the continent’s biggest security crisis since the Cold War, raising the specter of a dangerous confrontation between Western powers and Moscow.
(From Sarah Marsh and Madeline Chambers of Reuters and Eliza Mackintosh of CNN)
Source: CNN Brasil
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