China, which says it wants to play a role in the cessation of hostilities in Ukraine, must walk the talk, says Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly: Chinese President Xi Jinping needs to pick up the phone and talk to his counterpart of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, she pleaded on Friday.
This is one of the few elements that the head of Canadian diplomacy says she raised in her exchange with her Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in India, about a week ago.
PHOTO JUSTIN TANG, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly
“We urge China to ensure that President Xi has a conversation with President Zelensky. There have been no telephone conversations between the two presidents since February 24, 2022. [le début de l’invasion] “, underlined the minister in a joint press conference with her Norwegian counterpart.
We believe that China can, and must, play a role – obviously not just by not coming to Russia’s aid – to make sure this war ends, and that’s exactly what I said to my against Chinese.
Mélanie Joly, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs
The Chinese regime unveiled, at the end of February, its “position on the political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis”, a 12-point plan which proposes to “respect sovereignty of all countries”, to “renounce the Cold War mentality” and to “cease hostilities” in the hope of “launching peace talks”.
A few days earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that Washington was in possession of documents showing that the Chinese government could supply arms and ammunition to Russia.
However, China (like Russia) is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and therefore, as such, it has “the duty to defend the Charter of the United Nations” and to ensure stability on the continent. European, argued Mme Pretty.
Suspected police stations: Ulcerated Beijing
The Minister of Foreign Affairs did not dwell on the statements made earlier by the Chinese government about Canada.
At a press conference on Friday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning accused Ottawa of damaging Beijing’s reputation in response to a question about alleged Chinese police stations.
“China follows the principle of non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs, strictly observes international law and respects the judicial sovereignty of all countries,” she said.
“We hope relevant parties will stop hyping and discrediting China,” the spokeswoman added, without commenting directly on the existence of the centers.
The same day, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) announced that it had received a dozen reports in connection with the two alleged Chinese “police stations” which would sow a “climate of terror” among the Chinese diaspora, according to an article by the Montreal Journal. The announcement of an investigation had been made the day before.
Register of Foreign Agents
Asked about the start of consultations on the creation of a register of foreign agents announced earlier in the morning by her colleague at Public Security, Marco Mendicino, Minister Joly stressed that Australia was an example to follow.
“I had conversations with my Australian counterpart […] and certainly, we will be inspired by this model,” she argued.
The federal government’s consultation process will run until May 9.
The Bloc Québécois considers this announcement to be very timid.
“In the matter of foreign interference, Justin Trudeau’s government is showing us, once again, that rather than acting firmly as the situation requires, it prefers the strategy of ‘shoveling forward’,” lamented the Deputy René Villemure, by press release.
Senior federal government officials have been touting the merits of a registry to the Prime Minister for nearly a year. The United States and Australia are among the countries whose measures should be emulated in Canada, the Privy Council Office told Justin Trudeau in August 2022.
With the collaboration of Lila Dussault, The Press
