BEIJING: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday was traveling to Moscow for talks with his counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in a visit overshadowed by Western moves over Ukraine.
Wang is scheduled to meet with Lavrov on Tuesday, days after Ukraine and Russia agreed in principle to a limited ceasefire after US President Donald Trump spoke with the two countries’ leaders. It remains to be seen when such a truce might take effect, how long it might last and what targets would be off-limits.
Trump lashed out at both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday, expressing frustration with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders. Although Trump insisted to reporters that “we’re making a lot of progress,” he acknowledged that “there’s tremendous hatred” between the two men. He said he was “angry, pissed off” that Putin questioned Zelensky’s credibility.
Trump’s comments, which have typically been positive toward Putin, also came amid signs of a fracture between the US and its NATO allies, including Canada, with whom it is also involved in a trade war.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun, in comments consistent with China’s position, emphasized Beijing’s assertions of neutrality in the Ukraine conflict.
“We always believe that dialogue and negotiation are the only viable way out of the crisis. China’s cooperation with Russia does not target a third party and should not be affected by any third party,” Guo told reporters at a daily briefing.
China did not mention Ukraine in its announcement of Wang’s trip, saying only that the two countries “continue to deepen back-to-back strategic coordination and expand practical cooperation across various fields,” as well as “upholding the basic norms governing international relations.”
“The Chinese side is ready to take this visit as an opportunity to work with the Russian side ... on international and regional issues of common concern,” a Foreign Ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying.
China has provided strong diplomatic support for Russia in the more than three years since it launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor, along with an economic lifeline through the trade in energy and consumer goods. However, it has not knowingly provided Russia with weapons or military expertise and has put forward a vague peace plan that was swiftly dismissed by most observers.
Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un expressed his unwavering support for Russia’s war in Ukraine during a meeting with a top Russian security official in Pyongyang on Friday. That came after South Korean intelligence assessment in late February that North Korea had likely sent additional troops to Russia after its forces suffered heavy casualties fighting Ukrainian forces.
China’s FM heads to Moscow for talks in visit overshadowed by Ukraine crisis
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China’s FM heads to Moscow for talks in visit overshadowed by Ukraine crisis
- Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun, in comments consistent with China’s position, emphasized Beijing’s assertions of neutrality in the Ukraine conflict
Tanzania opposition says 2,000 killed in election violence
- Opposition party Chadema’s deputy chairperson John Heche said Tanzania witnessed “mass killings of more than 2,000 people and over 5,000 injured in the space of just one week“
- The violence was carried out “with direct involvement of the state“
DAR ES SALAM: Tanzania’s main opposition party on Thursday said more than 2,000 people were killed in a week of election violence, calling for sanctions against officials it accused of crimes against humanity.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan was declared the winner of October 29 polls with 98 percent of the vote, but her government was accused of rigging the polls and overseeing a campaign of murders and abductions of her critics that sparked nationwide protests and riots.
Opposition party Chadema’s deputy chairperson John Heche told reporters that Tanzania witnessed “mass killings of more than 2,000 people and over 5,000 injured in the space of just one week.”
He said the violence was carried out “with direct involvement of the state” and that it amounted to “crimes against humanity.”
Previous opposition counts had put the deaths at more than 1,000. The government has not given a death toll.
Heche urged the international community to “impose sanctions on all individuals involved in planning and executing these acts of criminality and crimes against humanity.”
In a live online broadcast, he said those responsible should be subjected to travel bans, including restrictions on their families.
Heche also said the unrest triggered a surge of people fleeing the country, alongside “the abduction and enforced disappearance of hundreds of civilians.”
Chadema further accused security units of carrying out rapes, torture and “gruesome killings,” and of engaging in widespread looting and arbitrary arrests.
The party urged authorities to return the bodies of those killed so families could bury them.
Authorities have continued to stifle dissent, with planned protests earlier this week seeing empty streets and a significant security presence.
Hassan last week justified the killings, saying it was necessary to prevent the overthrow of the government.
“The force that was used corresponds to the situation at hand,” she said in a speech.
Hassan has formed an inquiry commission into the violence, which the opposition says includes only government loyalists, instead calling for an independent investigation.
