"Sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries should be respected, principles of the UN Charter should be followed, legitimate security concerns of all parties should be taken seriously, and all efforts to resolve the crisis peacefully should be supported," China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi outlined in a meeting with Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly this week.

Chinese state media revealed the comments on Friday, and according to Wang, "Those four objectives are China's most authoritative statement on the Ukrainian issue and also China's fundamental approach to this issue," Bloomberg reports.

This follows what appeared to be rare public criticisms of Russian President Vladimir Putin coming from China and India at the Uzbekistan security summit a week ago.