Demands that Beijing “do not hand over weapons to the aggressor” and applauds Xi’s “unequivocal” position against the nuclear threat
BERLIN, March 2 (DPA/EP) –
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on China on Thursday to “use its influence in Moscow” to achieve the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine and demanded that Beijing “do not hand over weapons to the aggressor.”
“Use your influence in Moscow to press for the withdrawal of Russian troops (from Ukraine),” he said during an appearance before the Bundestag, in which he applauded Chinese President Xi Jinping for “unequivocally opposing any threatens nuclear weapons and even their use by Russia in Ukraine”.
Thus, he explained that this position has helped reduce tensions and stressed that it is positive that China has recently repeated this message against the use of nuclear weapons in its peace proposal, as reported by the German news agency DPA.
However, Scholz has described as “disappointing” that during the G20 foreign ministers meeting in India, Beijing did not reaffirm the consensus in force from the previous year, referring to “a clear condemnation against the Russian attack.”
On the other hand, he has extolled that aid to Ukraine is a contribution to international security and has argued that “it would have been disastrous support for the aggressor if a violation of International Law and the European order of peace had been rewarded.”
“Our ‘never again’ means that aggressive war will never return as a political path”, he said, before indicating that “the European peace order is defenseless”, referring to the lessons learned after the two world wars. For this reason, he has assured that peace will never be possible “by going over the top of the Ukrainians.”
“Peace is not achieved either when people shout here from Berlin ‘Never again war’ and at the same time demand to stop all arms shipments to Ukraine,” he said. “Loving peace does not mean submitting to a bigger neighbor. If Ukraine stopped defending itself, it would not be peace, but the end of Ukraine,” the German chancellor argued.
Scholz has also asserted that he considers that nothing indicates that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is willing to negotiate a return to these principles and a fair peace, although he has stressed that “there are no negotiations with a gun to the head, Unless it’s for your own surrender.”
For her part, the German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, addressed her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, this Thursday during the G20 summit in New Delhi to ask him to end the war against Ukraine. “Stop this war. Stop the violation of our international order. Stop the bombing of Ukrainian cities and civilians,” she said, according to delegation sources.
“It’s good that I’m here in the room to listen,” he said when addressing the Russian minister directly. “Stop the war. Not in a month or a year, but today. Because every family that loses a father, a brother, a mother, a child, loses an entire world,” he added. Last year, Lavrov left the room to avoid having to listen to the participants’ criticism of the invasion.
Baerbock has pointed out that there are different points of view on the war in Ukraine among the members of the G20, although he has stressed that “what unites everyone is that there is not a single place in the world where the Russian war has positive consequences”. . Thus, he has included Russia among those affected by the conflict, citing the thousands of people who are leaving the country and the economic situation it is going through due to the sanctions against it.
Lastly, the German minister expressed her concern over Russia’s announcement of the suspension of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and demanded that Moscow resume dialogue with the United States with a view to reapplying the full of the agreement.
