At this point in the war, skepticism is high about the mediating role that China can play between Russia and Ukraine to end the conflict, but several European leaders yesterday encouraged President Jinping to talk as soon as possible with Volodymyr Zelensky to lend credibility to his proposed peace plan, a proposal clouded, moreover, by suspicions that Beijing might consider sending military aid to Moscow.
“I think it is crucial, because China has a peace proposal with elements that can be helpful and others that are not so much” to reach a negotiated solution, he pointed out when he arrived at the Prime Minister’s Council of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte. “It’s up to Zelenski and his team to commit to the proposals that are on the table, but the first thing that needs to be done is to establish this communication,” he remarked.
The High Representative for Foreign Affairs of the EU, Josep Borrell, said a few days ago that it requires “a great intellectual effort” to see the Chinese proposal as a peace plan, and the European Union’s bet, now as of now, it is to support the ten-point plan that Zelenski presented on the anniversary of the start of the war, and this is stated in the draft conclusions of the summit, but they do not want to close doors to other contacts, rather make clear the terms of hypothetical peace talks, starting with respect for the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
The first Western leader who will have the opportunity to speak with Xi about his initiative for China will be the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, who, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Spain and the Republic Popular in China, will go to Beijing on March 30 and 31. “It is important to know first hand his position on peace in Ukraine and to communicate to him that it will be the Ukrainians who will establish the conditions for the beginning of this peace, when it arrives,” said Sánchez when he arrived at the summit. In addition, “the most important thing is that a stable and lasting peace can be guaranteed”, which implies “respect for the United Nations charter of rights, the territorial integrity of Ukraine violated by Russia”, added Sánchez.
“Sending weapons to a country that is defending itself”, as Europe is doing with Ukraine, respects the United Nations charter, but “helping the aggressor is the exact opposite, and here there is clearly an aggressor and an aggressor”. pointed out, for his part, the prime minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, who insisted that in order to achieve peace “Russia must return to its borders and agree to reparations”, and made clear his skepticism about the role China’s mediator after stressing that it is clear that Putin and Xi are “great friends”.
The European leaders yesterday reiterated to Volodymyr Zelensky, with whom they spoke by video conference while he was returning by train from visiting areas of the war front, that they will focus on Ukraine “as long as it takes”, and recalled the decisions taken since the his visit to Brussels in February, especially the joint purchases of ammunition to send to Kyiv a million rounds of artillery within a year, starting with giving the national reserves.
The Foreign Ministers of the Twenty-seven agreed on Monday to dedicate 2,000 million euros to these operations, and it is currently being debated to give the European Fund for Peace another 3,500 million euros to finance the acquisition of military equipment .
Zelenskiy thanked the support received, but warned leaders that delays in sending long-range missiles and fighter jets (which should be “more modern” than the Soviet-era MiG-29s that have received so far from Slovakia) reduce the ability of the Ukrainian army to protect the population at a critical moment in the war and, in fact, prolong the conflict.
The Kremlin, in fact, is trying to get some Western sanctions lifted as part of the negotiations for the signing of a new agreement that will allow grain to be exported from Ukraine, a personal initiative of the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, who yesterday participated in person in the European Council and informed the leaders of the critical situation of global food security. European sanctions against Belarusian fertilizers, adopted in 2021 following the diversion of a Ryanair plane carrying a journalist critical of the regime, are in the spotlight, with the Twenty-seven negotiating a possible exception to draw arguments to Moscow about the effects of Western sanctions, but given the collusion between Russia and Belarus in Ukraine, several countries are opposed to any relaxation of the punishment.
