BEIJING, April 28. /ITAR-TASS/. Sanctions against Russia on the part of the Group of Seven will unlikely help resolve the Ukrainian problem and may whip up tensions instead, Qin Gang, an official spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told ITAR-TASS.
“Since the outbreak of the crisis in Ukraine we are engaged in an active dialogue with the G7 countries and we have made our position on the issue clear-cut,” he said. “China objects to threats and sanctions. We think the sanctions will hardly help resolve the problem and they can even add fuel to the tensions.”
“We call on the sides to settle their differences through negotiations and to defuse the Ukrainian crisis politically,” Qin Gang said.
Reports said earlier that the governments of the world’s seven leading industrialized nations had expressed their willingness to enforce urgent new restrictive measures against Russia.
A statement issued by the G7 says the governments of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the US together with the EU and the European Commission were prepared to make immediate steps that would ensure security in Ukraine and assure the free, peaceful and democratic voting at the May 25 presidential elections.
The document said the sanctions would raise the price that Russia would pay for its actions.