Russia and Ukraine
Beijing warned against the use of nuclear weapons and called on Russia and Ukraine to resume peace negotiations
On Friday, on the occasion of the one-year anniversary of the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the Chinese government published a 12-item proposal calling on Moscow and Kiev to resume peace negotiations, warning against the use of nuclear weapons and demanding that civilians be avoided.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in the document that “all parties should support Russia and Ukraine to move in the same direction and resume direct dialogue between them as soon as possible,” stressing that “nuclear weapons should not be used and nuclear wars should not be fought.”
The ministry also stressed that “parties to the conflict must strictly abide by international humanitarian law and avoid attacking civilians or civilian facilities.”
The destruction left by the fighting in Bakhmut
For Beijing, even the mere threat of nuclear weapons is unacceptable.
“Nuclear weapons should not be used, and nuclear wars should not be fought. The threat of atomic weapons should be opposed or resorted to,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in the document, which it published on its website.
The document also called for avoiding any attack on civilians or civilian facilities.
“Parties to the conflict must strictly abide by international humanitarian law and avoid attacking civilians or civilian facilities,” she said.
The Ukrainian crisis put Beijing in an awkward position, as China, a close ally of Russia, did not support or publicly criticize the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but it repeatedly expressed its support for Moscow in the face of Western sanctions and stressed the need to take into account Russia’s security concerns, and in return called several times for respecting Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
The United States said this week that China planned to supply weapons to Russia to support its offensive in Ukraine, a charge Beijing quickly denied.
And on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Chen Gang announced that his country is “extremely concerned” about the conflict in Ukraine, which is “escalating and even getting out of control.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev (Reuters)
On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he welcomed talks with Beijing, a close ally of Russia.
Asked about the prospects for a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Zelensky told a news briefing in Kiev, “We would like to meet with China.”
“This is now in Ukraine’s interest,” he added at a joint press conference with visiting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
Xi, who the Wall Street Journal reported this week will meet Vladimir Putin in the coming months, is expected to deliver a “peace speech” on the anniversary of the outbreak of war in Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
Zelensky considered it encouraging that China is considering brokering peace. “The more countries, especially the communities of those big and powerful ones, think about how to end the war in Ukraine while respecting our sovereignty with a just peace, the closer that will happen,” he said.
Russia also said it welcomed China’s more active role in efforts to settle the conflict in Ukraine and appreciated China’s “balanced approach”.
