Ruptly
"Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lin Jian urged a diplomatic resolution on Wednesday following an overnight military escalation and exchange of fire between the United States and Iran in the Middle East. “Relevant parties need to remain calm, exercise restraint, stop exacerbating confrontation and escalating tensions, take concrete actions to ease the situation, stick to political and diplomatic means for resolving disputes, and work for an early realisation of a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire,” Lin said at a press conference in Beijing. The comments come after the US carried out overnight strikes against Iranian air defence systems, ground-control stations and surveillance radar sites after US President Donald Trump on Tuesday blamed Tehran for shooting down an American AH-64 Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz. In response, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched strikes against military facilities across the region, including bases in Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait. The spokesperson also criticised the European Union’s 21st sanctions package against Russia, which expanded restrictions to include companies in India, China, Turkiye, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and the United Arab Emirates. Lin condemned the sanctions as ‘illicit’, pledging to protect Chinese entities. “We have lodged serious protests to the EU side on multiple occasions to urge the EU to correct the wrongdoing and withdraw the illicit unilateral sanctions. China will closely watch the developments and do what is necessary to firmly protect its legitimate rights and interests,” he stated. Later, Lin accused Tokyo of ‘re-militarisation’ after Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) approved a draft proposal for revising the country’s three key security documents: the National Security Strategy, the National Defence Strategy, and the Defence Buildup Program – with a target to increase defence spending. “Hiding behind the pretext of ‘bolstering defence’ and ‘responding passively’, Japan’s right-wing forces have been aggressively developing powerful offensive intermediate- and long-range weapons, boosting power projection and forward deployment, and steering Japan’s security policy toward an offensive and expansionary direction,” he stated. “The international community needs to stay highly vigilant and nip it in the bud,” the spokesperson emphasised. The LDP will submit the proposal to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi by the end of this month. Beijing's ties with Tokyo remain strained after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remarks on Taiwan's security last November and Tokyo's reported military buildup in recent months."
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