China’s ambassador to France has sparked anger in eastern Europe and Ukraine while drawing a rebuke in Paris after questioning the sovereignty of post-Soviet countries.

Speaking Friday on the LCI news channel, ambassador Lu Shaye suggested countries that emerged after the fall of the Soviet Union “don’t have effective status under international law because there is not an international agreement confirming their status as sovereign nations.”

The comments cast doubt not just on Ukraine, which Russia invaded in last February, but all former Soviet republics which emerged as independent nations after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, including members of the European Union.

Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak said on Sunday that the status of post-Soviet countries was “enshrined in international law”, while he also took issue with Mr. Lu’s comments on Crimea which was occupied by Russia in 2014.Asked if Crimea was Ukrainian during his interview on LCI, Mr. Lu replied, “it depends on how you look at the problem. There’s history. Crimea was Russian at the start.”

“It is strange to hear an absurd version of the ‘history of Crimea’ from a representative of a country that is scrupulous about its thousand-year history,” Mr. Podolyak said, referring to China.

The Foreign Ministers of Baltic countries Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, all former Soviet republics which joined the EU after Independence, condemned the comments from Mr. Lu, who is part if a new class of outspoken Chinese diplomats.

Latvia’s Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics wrote on Twitter that his views were “completely unacceptable”, while Estonia’s Margus Tsahkna called them “false and a misinterpretation of history.”

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david waker

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