welcome back. china s reaction to the conflict in ukraine has some chinese citizens there living in fear. the country has not condemned moscow s actions and has relaxed port restrictions, lessoning the blow of western sanctions. we are joined from beijing with more. steven, china walked a tightrope with russia back in 2014 when putin invaded crimea. it s repeating this act, but is that sustainable with the condemnation against russia this time around? it s an impossible balance for them to strike. on one manned they are trying to maintain or strengthen the alliance in russia, and the partnership being described as having no limits by the leaders, and obviously russia will rely
witnessed putin made his choice. he rejected diplomacy and chose war and today the president announced our response. because of putin s choices his flagrant violation of international law and utter disregard for the principles that under pin piece and security across the world we will ensure his decision is remembered as a strategic failure. we impose an unprecedented package of financial sanctions and export restrictions in lock step with our allies and partners that will isolate russia and shut down access to cutting edge technology and undercut putin s strategic ambitions. let me walk you through a few spusks. on financial sanctions. i stood at the podium on tuesday saying we would impose the most severe sanctions levied on russia if putin continued with
with deprivation and underfunding. with all deprivation and underfunding. with all the worrying warning with all the worrying warning signals flashing red, we have warning signals flashing red, we have a duty to act. the global we have a duty to act. the global crisis response group that global crisis response group that i global crisis response group that i set up last month has formulated initial recommendations for the consideration of member states, international financial institutions and others. on food, institutions and others. on food, we institutions and others. on food, we are urging all countries to keep markets open, resist countries to keep markets open, resist unjustified and unnecessary export restrictions, and make reserves available restrictions, and make reserves available to countries at risk of hunger and available to countries at risk of hungerand famine. available to countries at risk of hunger and famine. this is not the of hunger and fam
import fertiliser. these are huge numbers, 35 out of 55 countries, meaning there is a great deal of dependence. work being done by the african development bank now shows that in many countries food prices are rising by 20 50% already. this is huge. so my worry is that we have a food crisis that is brewing and that could become worse. now, at the wto, what we are trying to say and do, and i am very happy to say that many of our members are responding, is to not put in export restrictions and prohibitions, keeping food that you have. again, it is a natural reaction of policymakers to say, look, we have a problem, we must safeguard as much as we can for our population. but there are countries that do have extra in their buffer stocks. what we are really talking about is releasing those onto the world food market
saying among other things during the time the town was under russian control not a single local resident suffered violent action. the statement concludes by stating the photos and video footage from bucha are a hoax, a staged provocation by the kyiv regime for the western media. to be clear, they re saying this is a false flag operation, that this was staged by ukraine, and there s evidence that s true. in response to new evidence of russian atrocities, the european union says it s urgently discussing a new round of sanctions gen moscow. according to the financial times, eu ambassadors will discuss the new measures on wednesday, but it s unclear what they might entail. some of the sanctions under discussion include a ban on russian ships using eu ports and more export restrictions and embargoes on russian oil and gas. and just this morning, a spokesman for the british prime minister said europe should be moving at, quote, maximum speed