China’s Xi Jinping holds first talks with Ukrainian President Zelensky since Russian invasion
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (right) hoped the call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping would give impetus to relations with Beijing.
PHOTOS: AFP, REUTERS
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KYIV/BEIJING - Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke to his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky by telephone on Wednesday for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, fulfilling a longstanding goal of Kyiv, which had publicly sought such talks for months.
Mr Zelensky immediately signalled the importance of fostering closer relations with Russia’s most powerful friend by naming a former Cabinet minister as Ukraine’s new ambassador to Beijing.
Describing the phone call as “long and meaningful”, Mr Zelensky tweeted: “I believe that this call, as well as the appointment of Ukraine’s ambassador to China, will give a powerful impetus to the development of our bilateral relations.”
Mr Xi told Mr Zelensky that China would send special representatives to Ukraine and hold talks with all parties seeking peace, Chinese state media reported.
Mr Xi, the most powerful world leader to have refrained from denouncing Russia’s invasion, made a state visit to Moscow in March. Since February, he has promoted a 12-point peace plan for Ukraine, greeted sceptically by the West but cautiously welcomed by Kyiv as a sign of Chinese interest in ending the war.
China will focus on promoting peace talks
“As a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a responsible major country, we will neither sit idly by, nor pour oil on fire, still less seek to profit from it,” Mr Xi said.
The White House welcomed the call, which it said it had no advanced knowledge of, but said it was too soon to tell whether it would lead to a peace deal.
“That’s a good thing,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said. “Now, whether that’s going to lead to some sort of meaningful peace movement, or plan, or proposal, I just don’t think we know that right now.”
No peace talks in sight
The 14-month war is at a juncture, with Ukraine preparing to launch a counteroffensive in the coming weeks or months following a Russian winter offensive
Ukrainian officials have long called on Beijing to use its influence in Russia to help end the war.
Mr Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a “no limits” partnership agreement weeks before Mr Putin ordered the invasion.
Since then, China has denounced Western sanctions against Moscow but has held back from openly supporting the invasion. China has also become Russia’s biggest economic partner, buying up oil that can no longer be sold in Europe, often at steep discounts.
Following the Xi-Zelensky talks, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova said: “We note the readiness of the Chinese side to make efforts to establish a negotiation process.”
The United States has said in recent months it was worried about China providing weapons or ammunition to Russia, although Beijing denies any such plans.
‘Above board’
China says it is positioned to help mediate the conflict because it has not taken sides. “What China has done to help resolve the Ukraine crisis has been above board,” said Mr Yu Jun, deputy head of the Foreign Ministry’s Eurasian department.
Western countries say China’s 12-point peace proposal is too vague, offers no concrete path out of the war, and could be used by Mr Putin to promote a truce that would leave his forces in control of occupied territory while they regroup.
Earlier this week, European countries raised alarm after China’s ambassador to France said states such as Ukraine that won independence with the break-up of the Soviet Union “don’t have actual status in international law”.
Beijing said its position on the independence of former Soviet states was unchanged.
Meanwhile, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday criticised the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but said there was “no use now in saying who is right” in the conflict.
His comments came after he set off a storm among Western allies by stating earlier in April that they were prolonging the fighting by supplying arms to Ukraine.
“There is no use now in saying who is right, who is wrong. What we have to do now is stop the war,” he said at a joint press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez during his official visit to Spain.
In China earlier in April, Mr Lula said Washington should stop “encouraging” the war, and that the US and European Union “need to start talking about peace”.
He has also angered Ukraine in recent days by suggesting it should agree to give up the Crimea peninsula, which Russia forcefully annexed in 2014 in a prelude to its invasion of Ukraine last year.
Mr Sanchez said it was important to stress that the conflict started when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
“In this war, there is an aggressor and a victim of an attack,” he said, adding that the “aggressor” is Mr Putin. REUTERS, AFP
