Belarusian president supports China’s peace plan for Ukraine | International

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, a key Moscow ally, “fully agrees and supports” the Ukraine war peace plan presented by China last week. This was confirmed by the leader during a meeting held this Wednesday in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. Lukashenko landed in Beijing on Tuesday night to strengthen ties with the Asian giant during a state visit that underscores the turn towards the east of a country subjected to sanctions by its neighbors in the European Union and from whose territory, a year ago , Russian tanks came out to invade Ukraine.

The turbulence of the war in Europe has flown over the meeting as a backdrop. The Belarusian’s trip comes after Beijing presented a twelve-point peace plan last Friday to resolve the conflict – received with skepticism by Washington, Brussels and NATO. In recent days, US intelligence has also expressed suspicions that China may be considering the supply of drones and lethal weapons to Russia – something Beijing denies.

During the meeting between the heads of state, Xi reiterated some of the principles of his peace proposal: he called for “abandoning any Cold War mentality” and “respecting the legitimate security concerns of all countries”, with which Lukashenko He has fully agreed. The Chinese proposal is “of great importance to resolve the crisis,” he replied, according to a reading by the official Chinese news agency Xinhua. The meeting concluded with the signing of numerous cooperation agreements.

“Today’s meeting is held at a very difficult time that requires new unconventional approaches and responsible political decisions,” said the Belarusian autocrat in the confrontation with Xi, held on Wednesday afternoon. Lukashenko has stressed that these initiatives must be aimed at “avoiding a global confrontation that will have no winners” and has fully aligned himself with Beijing’s theses. “Belarus has actively proposed peace and fully supports your initiative on international security,” he told Xi, according to the official reading of the quote, published by the Belarusian news agency Belta.

The Chinese leader recalled their meeting in Samarkand last year, during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, when they agreed to elevate bilateral relations “to the category of comprehensive strategic partnership.” And he has ensured that there is a gap for Belarus in China’s “high-quality development and modernization process.” He has also defined the friendship of the two countries: “Unbreakable.”

“China is a supporter of a multipolar world. We follow the same policy”, Lukashenko has also defended in another of the interviews of the day, with Li Zhanshu, number three of the Communist Party and president of the National People’s Assembly – the Chinese legislature -. China often cites this very concept to criticize what it considers an excessive weight of the West, and especially the United States, on the world stage. During this meeting, the Belarusian leader has defended that the domestic and foreign policy agendas of both countries dance to the same rhythm: “We abide by the same principles.” And he has assured that China’s rise to the category of “global power” implies that today it is impossible to solve any crisis without counting on the Asian giant.

The meeting with Prime Minister Li Keqiang focused on deepening economic ties. Li has stressed the “mutual benefits” of cooperation between the two countries, according to Xinhua. Meanwhile, the European leader recalled his 13 visits to China, a country he considers a source of inspiration in this matter, with the creation of special economic zones. Lukashenko has thanked Beijing for “enormous assistance and support” to Belarus, highlighting initiatives launched under the framework of the New Silk Road, the mega-program for infrastructure and trade relations that China launched almost a decade ago.

Freight trains traveling from China to Europe connect through Belarus, one of the cornerstones of the new commercial routes promoted by Beijing; and on the outskirts of Minsk the Great Stone industrial park is growing, where Chinese and Belarusian companies cooperate, as well as from a dozen other countries.

“We do not have closed issues for cooperation. We cooperate in all ways,” added the Belarusian, in a phrase with echoes of the “limitless” friendship that President Xi and Russian leader Vladimir Putin professed in February 2022, three weeks before the Kremlin ordered his tanks to cross the borders of Ukraine. “We have never proposed to be friends or work against third countries,” Lukashenko has settled.

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