State flags of Russia and China. File photoBEIJING, Apr 2China's trade relations with other countries, including Russia, cannot be affected due to the situation in Ukraine, Wang Lutong, director of the European Department of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a briefing commenting on the Chinese leaders' summit held the day before. and the EU.
"We will not do anything deliberately to circumvent the US and EU sanctions against Russia. You know our position, we oppose sanctions… China is not a party to the conflict in Ukraine, and we do not believe that our normal trade cooperation with other countries should be affected", Lutun said.
He emphasized that Western countries have not completely abandoned economic interaction with Russia. «Even Europe is doing normal business with Russia, you have not stopped all your trade with Russia, and our usual trade cooperation with Moscow should not be affected,» the department director concluded. .According to him, employment and living standards in China depend, among other things, on normal trade with other countries, including Russia.Handelsblatt: The West may not be able to withstand tough sanctions against Russia, Van Lutong added that the corresponding sanctions could carry risks for the whole world, risks for currencies, trade and finance, as well as jeopardize supply and production chains, globalization and even the economic order established after the Second World War. world war.
"We oppose unilateral sanctions, and especially secondary sanctions and extraterritorial jurisdictions that are not based on international law… The Ukraine issue is a regional issue, but world leaders and politicians must think about the global implications of this crisis", — he added.
Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. In response, Western countries announced large-scale sanctions against Moscow, primarily in the banking sector and the supply of high-tech products. Individual brands announced the cessation of work in the country. The Kremlin called these measures an economic war, the likes of which have never been seen before. The authorities stressed their readiness for such a development of events and assured that they would continue to fulfill social obligations. The Bank of Russia is taking measures to stabilize the situation on the foreign exchange market. The authorities also announced the transfer of payments for gas supplies to unfriendly countries into rubles. In addition, the government has prepared a plan to counter restrictive measures, which includes about a hundred initiatives. The volume of its funding will be about a trillion rubles.