China has said it will “continue to play a constructive role in easing tensions over Ukraine” after Ukraine’s top diplomat turned to China’s foreign minister for help in mediating a ceasefire in the Russian invasion.
“China has always supported and encouraged all diplomatic efforts leading to a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis, welcomed the start of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine and hoped that the two countries would continue the process of dialogue and negotiations and seek a political solution legitimate security concerns on both sides, “Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a briefing on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had a telephone conversation with Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, who said Ukraine was ready to maintain communication with China and “looks forward to China’s mediation to a ceasefire,” the statement said. Foreign Ministry.
Kuleba also told CNN’s Christian Amanpour on Tuesday that the Chinese were “ready to seek a peaceful solution” in diplomatic talks to end the war, and that he called on Wang to take advantage of their influence on Putin, his relations with Russia and called for Putin to stop this war immediately.
Wenbin’s comments come a day after China began evacuating its citizens from Ukraine.
Unlike citizens of many other countries, Chinese citizens in Ukraine were not instructed to leave the country before the Russian invasion. Prior to Russia’s attack, Chinese officials withdrew warnings from the United States and its allies that an aggressive move by Moscow was imminent.
However, China seems to have changed course this week.
About 400 students based in the Black Sea port of Odessa and another 200 from the capital, Kyiv, left the country on Monday, according to the state-run tabloid Global Times, which cites the Chinese embassy in Ukraine. Another 1,000 citizens are expected to be evacuated to neighboring countries on Tuesday, he added.