Jakarta –
China asked Russia and Ukraine immediately entered into peace talks to end the war. China also reminded Russia and Ukraine not to use nuclear weapons.
Reported AFP, Friday (24/2/2023), China conveyed these warnings in a statement about the “political settlement” of the war between Russia and Ukraine. The warnings were made to coincide with the one year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“All sides should support Russia and Ukraine in working in the same direction and resume direct dialogue as soon as possible,” said a statement released on the Chinese Foreign Ministry website.
China insists it rejects not only the use of nuclear weapons. China also rejects any threat to use nuclear weapons.
“Nuclear weapons must not be used and nuclear war must not be waged. The threat or use of nuclear weapons must be opposed,” the statement said.
China has also highlighted the need to protect civilians. According to China, all parties must not attack civilians and civilian facilities in a conflict.
“Parties to a conflict must strictly comply with international humanitarian law, avoiding attacking civilians or civilian facilities,” he said.
China is known to have tried to position itself as a neutral party in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. China itself still maintains close relations with Russia which is its strategic ally.
On Wednesday (22/2), Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and President Russia Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Moscow said Beijing had expressed its views on approaches to a “political settlement” of the conflict. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had not seen China’s peace plan and wanted to meet the Chinese government before assessing it.
“I think it’s a very good fact in general that China is starting to talk about Ukraine and is sending some signals,” Zelensky said.
“We will draw some conclusions once we see specifically what they have to offer… We would like to have a meeting with China,” he added.
Since Russian tanks rolled across the border into Ukraine a year ago, China has offered Putin diplomatic and financial support. However, China continues to refrain from overt military involvement or transferring lethal weapons.
See Putin’s threat about nuclear on the next page.
(haf/haf)
