Alwaght- Chinese diplomats have reportedly told their European counterparts that they want Russia to be invited to a dialogue meant to settle the fight in Uekraine, according to RT news.
Beijing, further reports said, believes that no settlement can go on without Moscow.
China and Switzerland are working behind the scenes to get Russia invited to proposed Swiss-hosted talks aimed at ending the fighting between Kiev and Moscow, the South China Morning Post reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Last month, Switzerland announced plans to organize a peace summit “by the summer.” No specific date has been named yet. The number of potential participants has also not been revealed. However, Ukraine indicated that Russia can only be invited if it agrees in advance to a litany of precondition.
China’s envoy for Eurasia Li Hui told EU officials that the summit “can’t be a conference that produces a plan that is pushed down the Russians’ throat.” The sources further told the publication that both China and Switzerland share a “pragmatic” view that the negotiations should not be just a formality, South China Morning Post added.
China does not blame Russia for the outbreak of war in Ukraine and has so far showed an understanding of the Russian position on Ukraine, just unlike the West that not only blamed Moscow, but also imposed heaviest-ever sanctions on it.
China proposed a 12-point roadmap to peace in February 2023. The initiative was dismissed by Kiev.
The rejection of the Chinese peace initiative by the Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky, experts believe, was influenced by the US-led West that insists on beating Russia.
Ukrainian president, in turn, insisted that a settlement can only be based on the 10-point ‘peace formula’ he unveiled at the end of 2022.
Moscow has rejected Zelensky’s terms as unrealistic, arguing that it will never surrender Crimea, which joined Russia in 2014, or the four former Ukrainian regions that did the same in September 2022.
The Russian argument is that it launched its campaign in Ukraine as a response to calls of protection by ethnic Russians of eastern Ukraine and that withdrawal from these areas makes no sense.
With no plausible peace path in sight, things may develop towards a heightened confrontation and Chinese efforts may fail to make any difference. Two weeks ago, the French President Emmanuel Macron called for NATO boots on the Ukrainian ground to fight Russia. Though NATO members ruled out the idea, a preparation is in the making in the West for possible face-off with Russia.
