Diplomats from Beijing will also visit Poland, France and Germany this week. In the West, China’s ability to act as an impartial peace negotiator has been doubted.
The Chinese diplomatic mission will visit Ukraine, Russia and leading EU countries this week.
According to China, the purpose of the trip, which starts on Monday, is to discuss a “political solution” to the war in Ukraine with European decision-makers.
– This visit… it proves that China is promoting peace negotiations and shows China’s strong commitment to peace, the spokesperson of the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Wang Wenbin commented on Monday at the daily press conference.
The Chinese delegation is headed by Li Hui, who has previously served, among other things, as the ambassador to Russia. In addition to Ukraine and Russia, the delegation will also visit Poland, France and Germany.
Ukraine is to be the first destination of the trip, Reuters news agency reports based on Chinese official sources.
The peace plan has been criticized
The visit takes place a few weeks after the Chinese president Xi Jinping and the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi talked on the phone.
Zelenskyi describes that conversation on Twitter as “long and meaningful”. XI, on the other hand, said that China had highlighted the importance of peace in its discussions with the Ukrainian leadership.
In February, China presented a 12-point proposal to end the war in Ukraine. The plan, which was criticized by the Western powers, mainly repeated the views that China had previously expressed, such as that both sides of the war should strive to resolve the conflict and refrain from using nuclear weapons.
China has not explicitly condemned Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Because of the close relations between Beijing and Moscow, the United States and the EU have questioned China’s credibility to act as an impartial peace negotiator in Europe.
Source: Reuters