Beijing’s diplomatic outpost is taking a new step forward to try to stop the war in Ukraine. Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to travel to Moscow next week for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin; Next, the Chinese leader plans to hold virtual talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the first time since the conflict began. The Chinese president’s plans, which Portal and the Wall Street Journal revealed on Monday citing anonymous sources, have not been confirmed by China’s Foreign Ministry or the Kremlin.
Beijing, which has maintained a calculated balance since the Russian invasion more than a year ago, though leaning toward Moscow, has taken important steps in recent weeks to capitalize on its position as a potential ceasefire negotiator. At the end of February, the Chinese government published a 12-point roadmap for a “political solution to the Ukraine crisis”. But the plan was met with cool reception from the United States, the European Union and NATO.
The Ukrainian head of state held back his assessment, but said he wanted to meet with Xi Jinping. Ukraine has never given up on the accession of China, considered an ally of Putin, to seek a solution to the conflict, provided the proposal involves the withdrawal of Russian troops from its territory, reports say Luis de Vega from Kharkiv. And that implies an end to the occupation of the Crimean Peninsula, which has been in Moscow’s hands since 2014. “We would like to meet with China,” Zelenskyy commented on the eve of the first anniversary of the war (February 24), while acknowledging that the diplomacy of both countries is already in touch about the peace plan in Beijing, which calls for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine as a condition. For Kiev, recognizing its territorial integrity is a red line.
“The more countries, especially the societies of these countries, the big, influential ones, think about how to end the war in Ukraine with a just peace while respecting our sovereignty, the faster this will happen,” said Zelenskyy. “In general, the fact that China has started talking about Ukraine is very good. They are the first steps and it’s nothing negative,” he commented, but “we will draw conclusions when we see the details”.
Beijing’s position as a potential ceasefire broker is not easy. China has never condemned the Russian invasion, never labeled the war as such, and the Chinese leader sealed an “unlimited” friendship with Putin just three weeks before Russian tanks crossed the Ukrainian borders. His position, reinforced in the so-called peace plan, has always revolved around the same principles that the West observes with skepticism: “Respect for the sovereignty of all countries” (but without specifying which one) and at the same time their recognition of the “legitimate interests and security concerns” of all parties.
Meanwhile, Beijing expanded its trade ties with Moscow by 34.3% in 2022, according to official figures, but has so far refrained from direct military support to Russia, despite fears voiced by the international community.
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Last Tuesday, in his first media appearance, China’s new Foreign Minister Qin Gang assured that international relations would become more stable, multipolar and democratic if Beijing and Moscow worked together. “The more unstable the world becomes, the more imperative it becomes for China and Russia to advance their ties,” he said.
Last Friday, China moved up another notch as a broker of agreements between hostile countries, thanks to its mediation that secured the resumption of diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The trilateral agreement was sealed in Beijing on Friday and signed with a striking photo of the head of Chinese diplomacy, Wang Yi, at the center holding the hands of Saudi National Security Adviser Musaid Al Aiban and the Secretary of the Supreme Council of National Security of Iran, Ali Shankhani.
Both countries severed diplomatic ties in 2016 after an Iranian mob stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran, and the rivalry between the two major Shia (Iran) and Sunni (Saudi Arabia) powers in the Middle East impacted regional conflict routes , leading from Syria to Lebanon and passing through Yemen.
The pact, in turn, has allowed China to stick its chest out in a troubled part of the world where the United States used to be in charge. After the negotiations and the signing of a trilateral communiqué, Wang Yi assured the press that the thaw talks held in Beijing were “a victory for dialogue and peace.” “You bring very good news to an unstable world,” he said, according to China’s official newspaper, the Global Times.
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