03.04.2018, Beijing.
China supports Russia’s reciprocal expulsion of foreign diplomats, the Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Geng Shuang stated at a daily briefing on April 3, TASS reports.
“Russia’s actions of expelling the diplomats of a number of countries in response to the extradition of Russian diplomates were balanced,” said the Chinese Foreign Ministry official.
In addition, he said that Western countries and Russia have to cooperate in the investigation of the so-called Skripal case. In fact, the lack of such cooperation “based on mutual respect and equality” led to an escalation of relations between the West and Russia. Also, the Chinese official blamed the West for taking a Cold War approach to rhetoric and methods.
In response to the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats from 25 countries, on March 30 Russia expelled members of diplomatic staff of 22 countries. Representatives of the US and Great Britain, which accounted for most of the expelled diplomats in this exchange, said that Russia had no right for response actions. The West and a number of other countries deportated Russian diplomats in solidarity with Great Britain, which accused the Russian Federation of organizing an attempt on the life of Sergei Skripal, a retired Russian military intelligence (GRU) colonel.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
