UNITED NATIONS - A Chinese envoy on Monday called for calm and restraint over the alleged intrusion of Estonia's airspace by Russian fighter jets.
"China urges the parties concerned to remain calm and exercise restraint, clarify facts and dispel doubts through dialogue and communication, avoid misunderstanding and misjudgment, and prevent the situation from expanding or escalating," said Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, at an emergency meeting of the Security Council.
China always maintains that countries should follow the purposes and principles of the UN Charter in handling international relations, he said.
The Estonia airspace incident and the drone incident in Poland are both spillover effects of the Ukraine crisis. They reflect the lack of mutual trust and growing suspicions among the parties, and illustrate the complex and sensitive nature of the current European security situation, said Geng.
As long as the Ukraine crisis remains unresolved and the fighting continues, similar incidents are likely to recur. Therefore, the urgent imperative and fundamental solution is to realize the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis as soon as possible, and to build a balanced, effective and sustainable European security architecture, he said.
UN Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas Miroslav Jenca, in his briefing, said the world body is not in a position to confirm any of the claims regarding the incident and does not have any further details of the events. He, therefore, based his briefing solely on information available from public sources.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed Saturday that its fighter jets made a scheduled flight from Karelia on the border with Finland to an airfield in Kaliningrad, in strict accordance with international airspace rules, without deviating from the agreed flight path and without violating Estonian airspace, said Jenca.
"We again urge all concerned to act responsibly, to use all available channels and to take immediate steps to de-escalate tensions and prevent further risks to regional security," he said. "The world simply cannot afford such danger to spiral out of control, and for the devastating war in Ukraine to further escalate and expand."
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Estonia, other European countries that participated in Monday's meeting, and the United States accused Russia of violating Estonia's airspace and of escalating tension.
Russia's first deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyanskiy, denied that Russian jets had violated Estonian airspace and accused European states of Russophobia.
"Through their (European politicians') efforts, a medieval-like hatred for our country, coupled with the aspiration to portray Russia as the principal threat to pan-Europe security, is, before our very eyes, becoming the overarching ideology of European states," he said.
"Our neighbors have now conceived that Russia is at fault for an incursion into Estonia's airspace. As always, there is no evidence, except for the Russophobic hysteria coming from Tallinn," said Polyanskiy.
US Permanent Representative to the United Nations Mike Waltz, in his maiden speech to the Security Council, said his country and its allies will "defend every inch of NATO territory."
Estonia is a NATO member.
Non-European members of the Security Council called for restraint and de-escalation.
