New Delhi, January 2

China’s new Foreign Minister Qin Gang has blamed Taiwan and Japan for triggering the ongoing crises but maintained a neutral stance on the border dispute with India and the South China Sea.

The tension across the Taiwan Strait was not created by the Chinese mainland breaking the status quo, but by “Taiwan independence’’ separatists and external forces continually challenging the status quo of “one China’’, he wrote in an article.

In the case of the East China Sea, it was Japan who attempted to “nationalise’’ Diaoyu Dao (island) ten years ago, altering the status quo between China and Japan of agreeing to put aside differences, he said.

In the South China Sea, he said the status quo is that regional countries are consulting on a code of conduct that will lead to meaningful and effective rules for the region.

On the border issues between China and India, he said “the status quo is that both sides are willing to ease the situation and jointly protect peace along their borders.’’

China, he wrote, is highly concerned about the situation in Ukraine which reveals some important lessons: conflicts and wars produce no winner; there is no simple solution to a complex issue; confrontation between major countries must be avoided.

“The most urgent task for the moment is to promote peace talks between Russia and Ukraine as well as dialogue between the US, the EU, NATO, and Russia. In the long term, people must realise that grounding one’s own security on other countries’ insecurity won’t work; it is necessary to establish a balanced, effective, and sustainable European security framework. There is no choice other than this,’’ he observed.