Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics stated on his Twitter account that they will request an explanation by calling the authorized names of Lithuanian, Estonian and Chinese Embassies in their countries.
Expressing that Lu’s words were “unacceptable”, Rinkevics stated that they were waiting for an explanation from China and that they wanted the explanation to be withdrawn.
Rinkevics said, “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, taking into account the unacceptable remarks of the Chinese Ambassador to France on international law and national sovereignty, has summoned the authorized charge d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Riga to make a statement. This step has been taken in coordination with Lithuania and Estonia.” used the phrases.
In an interview with French television TF1, the Chinese ambassador commented, “Even the former Soviet Republics do not have a status in international law. They do not have an effective status in international law because their status as a sovereign country was not concretized in an international agreement.”
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, who downgraded his diplomatic relations on the grounds that China approved Taiwan to establish a representative office under his own name in his country, with which it has a sovereignty dispute, also shared on Twitter, “If the Baltic countries mediate peace in Ukraine, why would China?” “For anyone wondering if you don’t trust the ‘, here’s a Chinese ambassador claiming that Crimea is Russian and the borders of the Baltic states have no legal basis,” he said.
The claim that “Crimea was originally Russian”
In the same interview, the Chinese ambassador Lu, when asked about Russia’s annexation of Crimea, said, “It depends on how you perceive this problem, it’s not that simple. Crimea was Russian in the beginning.”
Ukraine reacted to these words of Lu. Vadym Omelchenko, Ukraine’s Ambassador to France, said in a statement on his Twitter account, “Crimea is Ukraine, there is no room for doubt in this regard.”
China’s “Who Owns Crimea?” Emphasizing that it is meaningful to raise the question, Omelchenko reminded Beijing’s historical conflict with Russia in the Siberia region and said:
“Next time it would be good to ask, who owns Vladivostok? The Soviet empire no longer exists, the story continues in Europe now.”
China recognized that Crimea was part of Ukraine under the “denuclearization” agreement signed with Ukraine in December 1994. With the agreement, Kiev made a commitment to countries, including China, to give up their nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees.