The nature and root cause of Ukraine crisis was the game between Russia and the western powers and now the West should take into consideration Russia’s legitimate security concerns over Ukraine, says a senior Chinese diplomat.
“There were internal and external reasons for the Ukraine crisis. Originally, the issue stemmed from Ukraine’s internal problems, but it now was not a simple internal matter. Without external intervention from different powers, the Ukrainian problem would not develop into the serious crisis as it be,” Chinese Ambassador to Belgium Qu Xing told Xinhua.
Qu Xing explained that Russia feels anxious over the West extending influence in eastern European countries, the involvement of the United States in Ukraine being a distraction in the “re-balancing strategy”.
“The United States is unwilling to see its presence in any part of the world being weakened, but the fact is its resources are limited, and it will be to some extent a hard work to sustain its influence in external affairs, ” Qu said, adding that the Ukraine crisis should be a lesson for the major powers who “need to seek a win-win situation rather than zero-sum security”.
From the Chinese diplomat’s point of view, everything started because the West is sensitive about its security and takes continuous steps to cement it. He gave the US as an example because it even had a national security review system for foreign investor mergers and acquisition activities in the United States.
“The West should abandon the zero-sum mentality, and take the real security concerns of Russia into consideration,” said Qu.
Considering the geopolitical interests, Qu sees Europe as more pragmatic than the US over the Ukrainian issue. Even though US and EU have the same strategy, the latter has different tactics because Europe knows the chaos in Ukraine will cause cause instability in its proximity.
The Chinese diplomat also talked about the contrast between Ukraine’s eastern and western regions and said the relationship between the two parts had long been affected by external forces. In his opinion, internal contradictions were intensified by the weak economy and severe corruption that grew when politicians focused more on partisan struggle rather than improving people’s livelihood.