China says that Latin America does not belong to any country and is not anyone's backyard - MPPRE

China says that Latin America does not belong to any country and is not anyone’s backyard

The spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, Geng Shuang, has reacted before the statements of National Security Adviser to US President John Bolton on the inadmissibility of interference by hostile countries in the situation in Venezuela. Geng Shuang, declared on Tuesday that Latin American nations are sovereign countries, able to decide on their own with which States to collaborate. “Latin America does not belong to any country and it is not anyone’s backyard”, he stressed. Then, the spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry stressed that his nation “always supports the development of friendly relations with the countries” of the region, including Venezuela. In the context of the current situation of the Latin American country, Geng stressed that only the Venezuelan people can find a way out of the political crisis that their nation is experiencing these days. “The Venezuelan situation can be resolved only by the Venezuelan people, stability in Venezuela is in the interest of the country, as well as the region”, he reiterated. Previously, the US National Security Advisor, John Bolton, affirmed through his Twitter account that Washington will not tolerate “hostile foreign military powers” that prevent from achieving “objectives of democracy, security and the rule of law, shared in the Western Hemisphere”, he said. In turn, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Jorge Arreaza, affirmed on Monday on Twitter that Washington is trying to “interfere in the technical-military cooperation programs between Russia and Venezuela”, at the same time that the United States has a large number of military bases around the world – “a good part” of which is located in Latin America – and “a growing military budget of more than $ 700 billion”. Arreaza described this behavior of the US authorities as “cynicism”. On the other hand, on March 25, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a telephone conversation where issues related to the situation in Venezuela were discussed. In this dialogue, Lavrov stressed that Washington’s attempts to organize a “coup d’état” in Venezuela and the threats against its legitimate government “are violating the UN Charter”, adding that this constitutes an “undisguised interference” in the internal affairs of a sovereign State.