China’s foreign ministry said on Monday that the International Criminal Court should avoid “double standards”, its first response to the court’s move to issue an arrest warrant for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. The remarks from Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for the ministry, came just before China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, landed in Moscow for a state visit.

On Friday, the ICC accused Putin of war crimes and alleged that he bore individual criminal responsibility for the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children since the invasion began last year. China, an increasingly crucial economic partner of Russia, has neither condemned Putin’s invasion nor supported it outright.

When asked at a briefing on Monday about the warrant, Wang did not refer explicitly to the charges. “The International Criminal Court should uphold an objective and impartial stance, respect the immunity of heads of state from jurisdiction under international law, exercise its functions and powers prudently in accordance with the law, interpret and apply international law in good faith, and avoid politicisation and double standards,” Wang said.

The court does not recognise immunity for a head of state in cases involving war crimes. Neither China nor Russia signed the 2002 treaty that established the ICC’s authority. In 2020, the court decided not to pursue an investigation into China’s mass detention of Muslims because the country is not a party to the court.

Ukraine condition

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has said he would enter peace talks only if Putin withdraws his troops from Ukrainian territory — a pre-condition that a top Ukrainian official reiterated as Xi arrived in Moscow. “The first and main point is the capitulation or withdrawal of the Russian occupation troops,” Oleksiy Danilov, the head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, said in a statement.

New York Times News Service