France, Ukraine and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania expressed dismay after China`s ambassador in Paris wondered the sovereignty of former Soviet international locations like Ukraine.
Asked approximately his role on whether or not Crimea is a part of Ukraine or now no longer, Chinese ambassador Lu Shaye stated in an interview aired on French tv on Friday that traditionally it turned into a part of Russia and have been presented to Ukraine through former Soviet chief Nikita Khrushchev.
“These ex-USSR international locations do not have real popularity in global regulation due to the fact there may be no global settlement to materialize their sovereign popularity,” Shaye introduced.
France spoke back on Sunday through declaring its “complete solidarity” with all of the allied international locations affected, which it stated had received their independence “after a long time of oppression”.
“On Ukraine specifically, it turned into the world over known inside borders such as Crimea in 1991, through the complete global community, such as China,” a overseas ministry spokesperson stated.
The spokesperson introduced that China will ought to make clear whether or not those remarks mirror its role or now no longer.
The 3 Baltic states and Ukraine, all previously a part of the Soviet Union, reacted alongside the equal strains as France.
“It is ordinary to listen an absurd model of the ‘records of Crimea’ from a consultant of a rustic this is scrupulous approximately its thousand-yr records,” Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior Ukrainian presidential aide, wrote on Twitter.
“If you need to be a chief political player, do now no longer parrot the propaganda of Russian outsiders,” Podolyak introduced. China’s overseas ministry did now no longer right now reply to a Reuters request for comment.