Brussels 23.04.2023 In an interview Chinese ambassador to France Lu Shaye said that former Soviet countries “have no effective status in international law”.

“In international law, even these ex-Soviet Union countries do not have the effective status because there is no international agreement to materialize their status of a sovereign country,” the diplomat said to journalist Darius Rochebin.

His Excellency Lu Shaye “denies the very existence of countries like Ukraine, Lithuania, Estonia, Kazakhstan, etc.,” Antoine Bondaz, a China expert at the Paris-based think-tank Foundation for Strategic Research, wrote on Twitter.

Also, when asked whether he thinks Crimea belongs to Ukraine, the ambassador said, “it depends on how you perceive the problem,” adding that “it’s not that simple.” The diplomat also said Crimea was “Russian initially”, and then was transferred by the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to Ukraine.

Earlier this month, however, China’s Ambassador to the European Union, Fu Cong, downplayed the Russo-Chinese partnership. Despite China’s refusal to denounce the Russian aggression against Ukraine.The Chinese ambassador said that the relationship between Beijing and Moscow has been “deliberately misinterpreted.” He also has refuted the statement of U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken from February this year that China considers supplying Russia with arms.