China wouldn’t block UN sanctions on Sudan – UK
June 4, 2007 (LONDON) — China, the largest buyer of Sudanese oil exports, probably would not block new United Nations sanctions on Sudan over the violence in Darfur, said Britain’s minister for African affairs.
“They’re arguing with much greater force than they have in the past for Sudan to live up to its international obligations,” Lord David Triesman told foreign journalists at a news briefing at the U.K. Foreign Office in London today. “I think the Chinese are now working very hard to resolve this problem.”
Discussions with Chinese officials have “led me to believe that China would not block” new resolutions by the UN Security Council, Triesman said. He declined to discuss details, saying “I don’t want to interfere with those discussions.”
China, one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council, buys 60 percent of Sudan’s oil output and has faced world criticism for not doing enough to help resolve the crisis in Darfur. More than 200,000 people have died in Darfur in the past four years in a campaign of violence directed at rebels seeking a greater share of oil revenue and political power from the central government in Khartoum.
Possible new sanctions on Darfur might include a ban on international travel by top Sudanese officials and an arms embargo on all of Sudan, Triesman said. Last week, President George W. Bush said he instructed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to consult with the U.K. and other allies to draft a new UN Security Council resolution that would apply additional punitive measures against Sudan.
China’s Position
China has publicly said that it objects to sanctions on Sudan, a position reiterated last week by Liu Guijin, the Chinese foreign ministry’s special Africa envoy.
“Expanding sanctions against Sudan isn’t conducive to the situation,” Liu said May 29 during a briefing in Beijing.
Triesman said, however, that China has an incentive for the Darfur conflict to end because its oil supply from Sudan could be “up in the air” without a resolution.
Triesman’s remarks about Chinese efforts to help resolve the Darfur situation echo comments made May 29 in Washington by Andrew Natsios, Bush’s special envoy for Sudan, who said that China is working behind the scenes on the issue.
“The Chinese are attempting now to expand their trade and their presence in Africa,” Natsios told journalists in Washington in a briefing, according the State Department Web site. “This issue is infuriating the Africans, and I think the Chinese know that.”
“We have many indications that the Chinese position is evolving,” he said, while acknowledging that China would like to resolve the situation without sanctions.
“They have been much more helpful than may be apparent publicly,” Natsios said. “They don’t like to publicize a lot of the things they do. They’re very quiet about their diplomacy.”
(Bloomberg)