Beijing is the fashionable diplomatic destination these days. According to the Chinese press, the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council could go there in the coming months. And before them, the Belarusian president is expected there this Tuesday, February 28, followed by Emmanuel Macron in early April. In the background: the conflict in Ukraine and China’s position in this matter.
This should be seen as a sign that the second world power is seeking to regain a leading role on the international scene and in the conflict between Ukraine and Beijing’s strategic Russian partner.
By receiving both the Belarusian Head of State, Alexander Lukashenko, and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, the People’s Republic of China is positioning itself as a major player in the Ukrainian file.
This Sunday, February 26, the Chinese ambassador to the EU, Fu Cong, said via the newspaper GlobalTimes that the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of the Council, Charles Michel, could also come in the first half of the year.
As for Vladimir Putin, at the end of February he received in Moscow Wang Yi, the highest representative of Chinese diplomacy, and took advantage to declare that he hoped to receive his counterpart Xi Jinping, perhaps in the spring.
A major player who speaks to everyone, therefore, in opposition to the Americans. Unsurprisingly, the latter have moreover given a mixed reception to the chinese document published Friday on the resolution of the conflict in Ukraine.
But this Chinese initiative was indeed welcomed by France, by Russia, and also by kyiv. Volodymyr Zelensky himself judged necessary to work with China and has not ruled out meeting its number one Xi Jinping.
For several weeks, the communist regime has wanted to play both sides: on the one hand, a moderating role in the conflict, and on the other, that of supporting the Russian Federation.
In the latest example, this weekend, Beijing obstructed the publication of a press release condemning the war in Ukraine led by Moscow, during the summit of the G20 Finance in India.
Already on Thursday, China had abstained during the vote on a resolution at the UN. A resolution at the United Nations which demanded an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops, one year after the start of the offensive in Ukraine.
►Also read: In Moscow, China presents its vision for a “political settlement” of the war in Ukraine