The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, stressed this Sunday the European Union’s (EU) common position on China and urged Beijing to stop supporting Moscow in the war in Ukraine.
“The position of the EU towards China has not changed, and it can only be determined at the European level,” Borrell told reporters during a video conference of the meeting of the heads of the G7 diplomacy.
The foreign ministers of the seven most industrialized countries (G7) began this Sunday a three-day meeting in Karuizawa, a mountain resort northwest of Tokyo, which Borrell was unable to attend due to the coronavirus.
Japan is the host country of the meeting as it chairs the G7, of which it is a part along with Germany, Canada, the US, France, Italy and the UK.
The EU also participates in the G7.
The meeting is expected to be dominated by China, North Korea and Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The EU sees China “at the same time as a partner, as a competitor, and as a systemic rival,” Borrell said, quoted by Spanish news agency EFE.
He also said that China’s political system is “completely different” from that of the EU, and recalled European concerns about the human rights situation in the Asian giant.
French President Emmanuel Macron recently said that the EU should take its own stand on China and Taiwan, and not “align itself with the agenda” of the United States.
Regarding the war in Ukraine, Borrell said the EU will work with the G7 to continue to support Kyiv and said the meeting in Japan should send a strong signal in this regard.
“I hear voices saying that we have to stop supporting Ukraine in order to stop the war,” he said, clearly alluding to Brazilian President Lula da Silva’s accusations that the EU and the US are fueling the conflict.
The EU “does not want Ukraine to give up and be captured by the Russian army,” Borrell said, calling for “more and faster support for Ukraine.”
The representative also defended sanctions against Russia and that Moscow should be held accountable for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
In a telephone conversation with his Japanese counterpart, Yoshimasa Hayashi, Borrell stressed the importance of the G7’s discussion of China and North Korea in the current geopolitical and regional context.
The delegations sent to the meeting, including US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, arrived from Tokyo on the Japanese Shinkansen high-speed train, the French news agency AFP reports.
The meeting participants are expected to meet for a private dinner during which they will discuss issues related to China.
They are also expected to discuss a global infrastructure investment plan in the south, as well as other crises, from Afghanistan to Myanmar (formerly Burma) to Sudan, where fighting between military and paramilitaries killed 56 civilians in 24 hours.
The ministerial meeting is expected to prepare a summit of G7 leaders in May in Hiroshima.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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