China has renewed its calls for talks to resolve the ongoing Ukraine crisis as Foreign Minister Wang Yi met his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov for the first time since Vladimir Putin’s latest threat to use nuclear weapons . “China will continue to uphold an objective and fair position to promote peace talks and hopes that all parties will not give up on dialogue efforts and insist on resolving security concerns through peace talks,” Wang said during the meeting at the United Nations in New York, according to the Chinese foreign ministry. The Russian President upped his rhetoric on Wednesday in a speech that accused the West of “nuclear blackmail”, and said the country would “certainly make use of all weapon systems available to us” if its territorial integrity was threatened, adding: “This is not a bluff.” North Korea denies US claims it is sending arms to Russia amid Ukraine war Putin also ordered 300,000 trained reservists to be mobilised to defend Russian sovereignty and “to ensure the safety of our people and people in the liberated territories”. G7 foreign ministers in New York, for the UN General Assembly session, criticised Putin’s “irresponsible nuclear rhetoric” . “I guess China has no other choice except to stay somewhat further away from Putin because of his war escalation, his aggression and annexation [of Ukrainian territory], and his renewed threat of nuclear war,” said Shi Yinhong, an international relations professor at Renmin University in Beijing. Last week Putin told Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit that he understood China’s questions and concerns about the Ukraine war and would explain Moscow’s position behind closed doors. Washington and other Western governments have expressed concerns that Beijing and Moscow have been strengthening their partnership since Russia invaded its neighbour in February. China and Russia have accused Nato of ignoring Moscow’s security concerns by opening the door for Ukraine to join the alliance. The two leaders have also expressed opposition to what they call the West’s “unilateralism” and “power politics” – sentiments echoed by Wang and Lavrov on Wednesday. But at the same time, Beijing has not provided military support to Russia and has been careful not to fall foul of Western sanctions on the country. Shi said Putin mistakenly assumed that China could be easily managed and that he was “indispensable because of China’s intensive confrontation with the US”, but had overlooked Russia’s poor combat performance. Ukrainian forces recently mounted a swift counteroffensive to recover large swathes of territory in the northeastern Kharkiv region. “Putin’s speech should not be read as an explicit threat that Russia would use nuclear weapons against Ukraine if Ukraine continues counteroffensives against occupied territories after annexation,” the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said on Wednesday. Russia has never ruled out using nuclear weapons and continued to test nuclear-capable missiles during the war, although Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said last month that there were no plans to use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine. China, Russia won’t bend to ‘bogus values’ from West: Russian security chief In June, the Russian foreign ministry summoned the British ambassador Deborah Bronnert to protest after Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said Moscow’s spokeswoman Maria Zhakarova had been “threatening to nuke everyone” every week. Wan Qingsong, an associate research professor at East China Normal University’s Russian studies centre, said Putin’s speech was a “discourse trap” – words that can restrict politicians’ actions – and China did not need to respond to it positively. “It could be that Russia, Ukraine and the West are using the UN General Assembly session to shape their narratives,” he said. “It’s not only inappropriate for China to join in that effort, it could also bring trouble upon itself.” Andrew Korybko, a political analyst at the Russian International Affairs Council, a think tank close to the government, said Wang’s response showed China had not changed its position on the Ukraine war even after Putin’s speech. “China will likely maintain its consistent policy of arguing against the first use of nuclear weapons by any side,” he said. But he said it was also likely that Beijing would draw attention to any threats from Nato because this aligned with China’s position that the West was destabilising the world through groups like the Aukus security pact. Korybko said Putin’s order to mobilise reserves was in response to Russia’s military setbacks. He added that it was also intended to freeze the frontline ahead of polls called by separatist leaders and to signal that Russia wanted to de-escalate the war by freezing the line of contact. This week pro-Russian separatists controlling parts of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia called a series of referendums on whether to join Russia. Western governments have dismissed the polls – which will start as early as Friday – as a sham. It is unclear whether the Ukrainian counteroffensive led to the timing of the votes. Crimea was similarly annexed in 2014 following a vote that took place under a heavy Russian military presence. China has never made clear whether it regarded Crimea as part of Russia or Ukraine after the vote. ‘Don’t. Don’t. Don’t’: Biden warns Putin about using nuclear weapons Korybko said the regions in question will be considered Russian territory after the polls decide in favour of joining Russia and the onus will then be on Kyiv and Nato “to decide whether to escalate by attacking what Moscow would, by then, regard as its formal territory”. He said: “In that scenario, Russia’s ‘special military operation’ would transform into a defence of its own borders, which could immediately and drastically change the rules of engagement.” Additional reporting by Cyril Ip