‘Abandon Cold War Mentality’: China Urges Calm On Ukraine-Russia Tensions, Asks U.S. To ‘Stop Interfering’ In Beijing Olympics

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged calm from all sides involved in the Ukraine crisis during a call with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday and echoed Russia’s concerns about the expansion of NATO in Europe in a sign of the growing ties between Beijing and Moscow.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday. Getty Images

According to a Chinese foreign ministry statement, Wang said that all parties should abandon the Cold War mentality and urged Blinken to take Russia's “legitimate security concerns” more seriously. To resolve the issue in Ukraine, Wang called on all parties to return to the U.N. Security Council-approved Minsk Agreements that were signed in 2014 and 2015 to end a separatist war by Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine. Wang also echoed concerns raised by the Kremlin about growing NATO presence in eastern Europe, noting that “regional security should not be guaranteed by strengthening or even expanding military blocs.” The Chinese foreign minister also told Blinken that the U.S. should “stop interfering” with the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing—an event that will be diplomatically boycotted by Washington. The U.S. state department’s readout of the call makes no mention of the Olympics, but notes that Blinken underscored the security and economic risks posed by a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine. Blinken told Wang that de-escalation and diplomacy are the responsible way forward as the threat of Russia invading Ukraine grows.

“The top priority at the moment is that the U.S. should stop interfering with the Beijing Winter Olympics, stop playing with fire on the Taiwan issue, and stop creating various anti-China cliques,” Wang told Blinken, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry Statement.

China’s first major statement on the Russia-Ukraine crisis signals its growing ties with Russia, which comes amid heightened tensions with the United States. Earlier this week, the Chinese and the Russian navies carried out a joint exercise in the Arabian Sea. Next week, Russian President Vladimir Putin—who has been threatened with personal sanctions by the U.S.—is expected to visit the Chinese capital to attend the 2022 Winter Olympics. Putin this week said that both countries shared common values and both of them rejected the diplomatic boycott of the winter games by the U.S. and some of its allies.

Russia has amassed more than 120,000 troops along its border with Ukraine, giving rise to fears that an invasion of Ukraine is imminent. Russia has also moved forces—including fighter jets, marines and heavy artillery—into Belarus, which borders Ukraine to the north. In the last leg of his tour, Blinken met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva, where Russia had laid out some key demands. On Wednesday, Washington said it had rejected Moscow’s main demand that Ukraine be not allowed to join the NATO alliance, but instead offered “serious diplomatic path forward” to resolve the crisis.

Along with the U.S., NATO delivered its own set of written responses to Russian demands Wednesday. Russia, which has acknowledged receiving the written responses, is yet to react to them publicly.

Russia Carries Out Military Drills Ahead Of Talks As Biden Warns U.S. Could Sanction Putin Personally (Forbes)

China Warns US Over Ukraine, "Interfering" In Beijing Winter Olympics (AFP)