In their first meeting Wednesday, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi (L) promised Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba that China would work to get a ceasefire in Ukraine and restore peace negotiations. Photo courtesy of Chinese Foreign Ministry/X
July 24 (UPI) — Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi promised China would to work to get a cease-fire in Ukraine and restore peace negotiations in his first meeting with Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba on Wednesday.
The talks in the southern city of Guangzhou, following exchanges between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Chinese President Xi Jinping, focused on ways to “stop Russian aggression” and how China could help bring about a durable and just resolution to the conflict,” Kuleba’s office said in a news release.
Kuleba reportedly told Yi he was “convinced that a just peace in Ukraine is in China’s strategic interests, and China’s role as a global force for peace is important,” stressing that Ukraine was ready and willing to engage in good-faith peace talks but Russia had shown no inclination of coming to the negotiating table in the same spirit.
“Russian aggression has destroyed peace and slowed down development, and each new day of war entails new violations of humanity and further erosion of justice,” he said. “Therefore, it is necessary to end the war against Ukraine, restore peace and accelerate the restoration of our country”.
Ukraine’s top diplomat also argued that Russian aggression was detrimental “to international stability and the development of good neighborly relations,” and in particular was a drag on the growth of China-Europe trade.
While calling Ukraine a “friend” and calling for the two countries to promote “sustained, healthy and steady development of our relations,” China’s public readout of the three-hour meeting was cautious.
It promised to help bring about a cease-fire and get peace talks back on track but reiterated Beijing’s long-standing position that, ultimately, differences could only be settled politically.
“China supports all efforts conducive to peace, and will play a constructive role to help end hostilities, establish a cease-fire and restore peace talks,” foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a post on X.
“China has all along been committed to promoting a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis. China holds that ultimately all conflicts can only be resolved at the negotiating table and all disputes can only be settled by political means. ”
Kuleba updated Wang on the recent Peace Summit in Switzerland and why Ukraine’s Peace Formula was the best route to delivering an equitable resolution to Russia’s aggression.
He also referenced recently started European Union accession negotiations saying Ukraine-China relations should be discussed through the lens of Ukraine’s future membership of the 27-country bloc and therefore China’s overall relationship with Europe.
Wednesday’s meeting came as ties between China and Russia — which have traditionally viewed each other with great caution — grow ever closer amid the “comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation” that has broken out between former rivals since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
On July 4, Chinese President Xi Jinping met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Kazakhstan on the sidelines of a Eurasian intergovernmental security summit, just seven weeks after Xi had rolled out the red carpet for Putin in Beijing for a full state visit.
That visit was in reciprocation of Xi’s historic state visit to Russia in March 2023.
