China and Russia lashed out at the G7 members after they introduced new measures targeting Russia and shared growing concerns regarding China.
Criticisms
Russian Foreign Minister (FM) Sergey Lavrov on Saturday slammed the grouping for indulging in its “own greatness” with an agenda that aimed to “deter” Russia and China.
Meanwhile, China’s Foreign Ministry said that the G7 only “makes high-sounding claims” about promoting a peaceful world, but in fact, undermines regional stability and curbs other countries’ development. “That simply shows how little international credibility means to the G7,” it stated.
“Despite China’s serious concerns, the G7 used issues concerning China to smear and attack China and brazenly interfere in China’s internal affairs. China strongly deplores and firmly opposes this,” it underscored.
It added that the G7 must “stop pointing fingers at China” on the issue of Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Tibet and “take a hard look” at its own human rights record.
On the issue of the militarisation of the East and South China Seas, China stressed that the G7 must “respect regional countries’ efforts to uphold peace and stability” and “stop using maritime issues to drive a wedge between regional countries and incite bloc confrontation.”
#Comment: The G7 countries, which have more than 5,000 nuclear weapons, condemn China, which has about 300 nuclear weapons, and pledged never to be the first to use them. What’s more, this happened in Japan, which is about to dump nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the Pacific… https://t.co/6mKUQB9FPl pic.twitter.com/7MiJba4c2U
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) May 21, 2023
Beijing also addressed the issue of its “economic coercion,” alleging that the US’ “massive unilateral sanctions and acts of decoupling and disrupting industrial and supply chains” made it “the real coercer that politicises and weaponises economic and trade relations.”
“Let me make it clear that gone are the days when a handful of Western countries can just willfully meddle in other countries’ internal affairs and manipulate global affairs,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.
G7 Statement
The backlash from Russia and China comes after the G7 said in its joint statement on Saturday that it will continue to support Ukraine “for as long as it takes in the face of Russia’s illegal war of aggression.”
The grouping said that Russia’s “brutal war of aggression” presented “a threat to the whole world in breach of fundamental norms.”
Moreover, leaders also agreed on the necessity to accelerate the phase-out of the group’s dependency on Russian energy.
On China, member countries insisted that their policies and approaches “are not designed to harm China” nor “thwart [its] economic progress and development,” as a “growing China that plays by international rules would be of global interest.”
However, the group said that it recognises that “economic resilience requires de-risking and diversifying,” to which end, it “will take steps, individually and collectively, to invest in [its] own economic vibrancy.”