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10:31 a.m. : “After the collapse of the Soviet Union, China was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with the countries concerned”said the spokesperson.
10:37 : “China respects the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries and supports the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.”
Beijing seems to be distancing itself from Lu Shaye’s remarks. “China respects the sovereign state status of the republics” born after the fall of the USSR, says a spokeswoman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
10:24 a.m. : These comments have sparked a lively controversy in Europe. Nearly 80 European parliamentarians called on the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, in a platform at the World yesterday at “declare Ambassador Lu Shaye persona non grata, in response to his totally unacceptable behavior”.
10:25 a.m. : On Friday, Lu Shaye said on LCI that the countries of the former USSR “do not have effective status in international law, because there is no international agreement to concretize their status as a sovereign country”. He also questioned whether Crimea belongs to Ukraine. This territory had been annexed by Russia in 2014.
(MARTIN BUREAU / AFP)
10:26 : Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia will summon the Chinese ambassadors to their respective capitals, after remarks by the Chinese ambassador to France questioning “the status of sovereign country” territories of the former USSR. The three countries want “ask for clarification” on Beijing’s position.
11:25 a.m. : 🗣 War in Ukraine: “We are going to deliver additional rails, additional buses, additional boats”, announces Clément Beaune who visited the country for three days. “They want to project themselves into the aftermath,” says the Minister of Transport. https://t.co/tIxyCAF6D7
09:37 : Guest on franceinfo, Clément Beaune repeats this morning that France has promised to provide trains, buses and boats to Ukraine. The country’s infrastructure has been heavily damaged by the war.
09:27 : The city of Sevastopol, in annexed Crimea, was targeted by two surface drones during the night. Local occupation leader Mikhail Razvojaev says on Telegram (content in Russian) that one of them was destroyed by the defense, and the other exploded on its own. He adds that the episode took place out of town. On a video that appeared this morning, an explosion is however visible in the harbor. The Ukrainian camp has not yet delivered any comments.
07:21 : In Russia, convictions are more and more common for expressing opposition to power. In case of support for Ukraine, one can be denounced by his colleagues, his students or his table neighbor at the restaurant.
08:52 : Investments in the armies “are pulled by the war in Ukraine, which is pushing up European budgets, but also by unresolved and growing tensions in East Asia.”
08:52 : This is both the strongest growth recorded for more than 30 years, and the return (in constant dollars) to the level of expenditure of 1989, the year of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In summary, according to one of the co-authors of the study, “unheard of since the end of the cold war”.
08:51 : Military spending in Europe rose again last year to its level at the end of the Cold War. According to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a reference in this field, Europeans spent, after deducting inflation, 13% more on their armies in 2022.