UNITED NATIONS – EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Friday that China’s proposal to resolve the Ukraine war was “interesting” but not a full-fledged plan to lead to peace.

“It is not a peace plan, it is a position paper... where China has put together all their positions expressed since the beginning,” Mr Borrell said at the United Nations.

“It has interesting considerations about the use of nuclear arms, exchange of prisoners, the grain,” Mr Borrell told reporters before a meeting of the UN Security Council marking the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion.

“It has an interesting configuration in which one can agree. But in order to be a plan, it should be operationalised,” he said.

“From my point of view, in order to be credible, China should go also to Kyiv,” he stressed.

On Friday, China released a 12-point paper calling for urgent peace talks and a “political settlement” to the war.

Among other things, Beijing called for a comprehensive ceasefire, a proposal Kyiv rejected unless it involved Moscow withdrawing its troops to its 1991 borders.

China urged both sides to agree to a gradual de-escalation, warned against the use of nuclear weapons and said conflict benefited no one.

The plan, set out in a foreign ministry paper, was largely a reiteration of China’s line since Russia launched what it calls its “special military operation” on Feb 24, 2022.

China has refrained from condemning its ally Russia or referring to Moscow’s intervention in its neighbour as an “invasion”.

It has also criticised Western sanctions on Russia.

“All parties must stay rational and exercise restraint, avoid fanning the flames and aggravating tensions, and prevent the crisis from deteriorating further or even spiralling out of control,” the ministry said in its paper. AFP, REUTERS