Sanctions were 'unilateral', not by the UN: Chinese Ambassador

Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Yao Wen on Monday said China supports any global initiative if it remains conducive to common development worldwide and avoids division or confrontation.

He said any initiative by a country should be "open and inclusive" instead of being exclusive to a particular country or against any country.

The Chinese ambassador made the remarks when a reporter wanted to know his views on various global initiatives including the Indo-Pacific strategy.

Ambassador Wen had a meeting with Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen at his office at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Responding to a question on a sanctioned Russian ship heading towards China, the ambassador said he saw the media reports and hoped that any sort of sanction would not affect ordinary people and cooperation with any country.

He also said that those were "unilateral sanctions", and not by the United Nations.

Bangladesh has conveyed to the Russian side that they can send any ship except those 69 sanctioned ones carrying equipment for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant.

Sanctioned Russian ship Sparta III (Ursa Major) was scheduled to dock at Mongla port in Bangladesh at the end of December last year and unload cargo destined for the Rooppur power plant in Pabna.

But the authorities denied the ship permission to dock at the port after officials got a letter from the US Embassy in Dhaka, saying that the ship was on a list of Russian vessels sanctioned by the US.

The ship is en route to the port of Shanghai, China, sailing at a speed of 10.4 knots and expected to arrive there on January 31, according to vesselfinder.com which provides real-time vessel data.

Asked about the sanctioned ship's location, Foreign Minister Momen said they do not know anything further about the ship but reiterated that Bangladesh will not allow any sanctioned ship.

Regarding the situation along the border with Myanmar, he said the relevant ministries are working and they are also in touch with the Bangladesh mission in Myanmar.

"The situation is not good," said the foreign minister, noting that people are moving from one place to another out of panic.

He said that no new entry from Myanmar will be allowed amid conflicts between two groups on the Myanmar side.