Russia, China FMs to discuss ties in New York meet
February 23, 2015, 5:24 am

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) meets with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Montreux, Switzerland, Jan. 21, 2014 [Xinhua]

China is hosting the open debate focused on how the council can better support peace and security. The year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II and the founding of the UN.

China, earlier this month, assumed the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council for February.

Meanwhile, a bomb blast at a pro-Ukraine rally in Kharkiv, the biggest city in the east, is threatening to dislodge a shaky truce agreed last month between Russia and Ukraine.

The OSCE monitors said they were monitoring a march of pro-Maidan activists when they heard a blast and “felt shockwaves from their position 100m away.” Five minutes later, they arrived at the scene and “saw two dead individuals covered with Ukrainian flags and casualties being attended to.”

The Russian and Chinese Foreign Ministers meet in New York will take stock of bilateral ties and also the Ukraine crisis.

Welcoming the Minsk agreement, China has pointed out to the “historical complexity” of the Ukraine crisis.

“China has been of the view that in addressing the Ukrainian issue, we must stay the course of a political solution,” Chinese permanent envoy to the UN, Liu Jieyi, said last week.

“The Ukraine issue has its historical complexity and realities. A fundamental and long-time solution of this issue must both accommodate the legitimate interest and concerns of all the ethnic groups throughout Ukraine and address the legitimate concerns of all relevant parties so that a balance of interest can be achieved,” he added.

Under the UN Charter, the Security Council is tasked with keeping international peace.

The UNSC, which has powers to authorize military action, impose sanctions and set up peacekeeping operations, has 10 rotating members. The US, China, Russia, France and Britain are permanent members which wield a veto.

China had said earlier that it does not favour the practice of imposing sanctions in accordance with domestic laws of a nation, comments that provided much needed support to beleaguered ally Russia.

“Sanctions should not be a tool of a country in the pursuit of power politics. The domestic law of one country should not become the basis for sanctions against other states,” said Chinese envoy to the UN, Wang Min in an apparent jibe at the United States last year.

“China is against the practice of imposing sanctions on other countries on the basis of one’s domestic law,” he added.

TBP