BEIJING: A senior Chinese diplomat on Monday called on all parties to the Ukraine crisis to work toward an early end to the conflict.
“China once again calls on relevant parties to bear in mind the interest of the people, strive to promote peace and try every possible way to push parties to the conflict to resume peace talks and end the war at an early date,” Dai Bing, China’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, told the Security Council briefing on the humanitarian issue of Ukraine.
The envoy said that over the past year since the Ukraine crisis broke out, the humanitarian situation there “has always tugged at our heartstrings,” adding that conflicts on the ground show no signs of easing up, the logic of military solution still prevails and a large number of heavy weapons keep pouring into the battlefields.
“The international community deplores the humanitarian cost of the conflict. But the parties concerned lack the sincerity to promote peace talks and the determination to resolve the issue politically,” he said.
“At a time when armed conflicts still persist, priority should be given to humanitarian issues,” he said.
The ambassador underscored that China has always stressed that parties to the conflict must abide by international humanitarian law, adhere to the humanitarian bottom line of respecting life, refrain from attacking civilians and civilian facilities, and ensure the safe evacuation of personnel and the delivery of humanitarian relief.
“We appreciate the enormous work by international humanitarian agencies and neighboring countries to ease the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, especially the help given to vulnerable groups such as refugees and displaced persons,” he said.
“We encourage the international community to continue to uphold the humanitarian spirit, scale up the relief to all affected people, and speed up the repair of civilian infrastructure, in order to mitigate the impact of the conflict on people’s lives,” added Dai.
Turning to the safety and security of nuclear facilities, the envoy said that that any accident can result in humongous humanitarian and ecological catastrophe.
“China calls for an immediate stop to the shelling of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, earnest implementation of the seven pillars for ensuring nuclear safety and security proposed by the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and maximum efforts to stop the conflict from escalating to a nuclear crisis,” he said.
–The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
