Head of think tank urges China to release ‘our colleague Michael Kovrig’

The president of the International Crisis Group has used a high-level U.N. Security Council meeting attended by China’s foreign minister to appeal for the release of Canadian Michael Kovrig, the think-tank ‘s northeast Asia expert.

Robert Malley told a virtual council meeting Tuesday that the Crisis Group strives to be “an impartial conflict resolution organization,” and its staff try to understand the perspectives of all parties.

He said that is what Kovrig was doing “in his work on China’s foreign policy.”

Kovrig has been held by Beijing for nearly two years as part of a diplomatic dispute with Canada.

China imprisoned Kovrig and Canadian Michael Spavor in December 2018, in what Ottawa says was retaliation for the arrest of a Chinese executive on a U.S. extradition warrant.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi looked up when he heard Malley mention his country, but didn’t address the case in his own speech to the council.

The Canadian Press