Elvira Kadyrova
“Turkmenistan opposes the politicization of epidemics under any circumstances, since such politicization cannot benefit global anti-epidemic cooperation,” foreign minister Rashid Meredov said during a telephone conversation on Sunday (28 Jun) with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi.
Wang thanked Turkmenistan for its support to China in the fight against COVID-19 and praised Turkmenistan’s response measures.
“Some countries kept politicizing the virus and smearing China out of self-serving purposes, going as far as fabricating all kinds of lies. Such practices have crossed the boundary of human morality and will only be met with the unequivocal opposition of the international community”, Wang said.
During the talks, the parties have also touched upon the topic of Hong Kong and Xinjiang, which is widely propelled as anti-China hullabaloo campaign in the Western media, American diplomatic circles, expert community, and the American establishment.
“Turkmenistan is of the view that Hong Kong and Xinjiang-related matters are purely China’s internal affairs which brook no interference by any country according to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter”, stressed Rashid Meredov.
It should be noted that Ashgabat’s position on the above-mentioned issues once again indicates the strict adherence of Turkmenistan to its neutrality commitments. The clear message here is that the grief caused by COVID-19 deaths should not serve as a political weapon; internal issues are the prerogative of the sovereign nation and its government, and their harnessing by foreign actors as the political leash is inadmissible.
Wang Yi was right when he used the word “regrettably”… Really, regrettably, country positioning itself as a superpower, does not remember the basic truths that lay the foundations of the international legal order. Instead of focusing on heavy home troubles (Floyd’s killing and COVID-19 highlighted them as never before), US officials and lawmakers scrutinize affairs occurring on the opposite Pacific coast, zealously protecting the rights of Uighur Muslims and Hong Kong’s autonomy.
Earlier, US Senator Rick Scott in an interview with the BBC accused China of trying to slow down or sabotage the development of the Covid-19 vaccine in the West. He referred to the allegedly available intelligence data and called China “an adversary to America and democracies around the world.”
The coronavirus has added fuel to the fire of US-Chinese relations. It seems that the United States, which has the highest rates of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality, is trying to mask the failure of its own health system in the fight against the pandemic with a Chinese label. /// nCa, 30 June 2020