Xi Jinping admits that China is willing to “continue to play a constructive role in promoting a political solution to the conflict.” The President emphasized that there are more voices for peace.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping informed his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Monday that “most countries support a reduction in tensions” in Ukraine, according to a statement released Tuesday by the Asian country’s diplomacy.
Xi stressed that “there are more and more rational and peaceful voicesand that “most countries support a relaxation of tensions.”
These countries “want peace and negotiations to be promoted and are opposed to adding fuel to the fire,” Xi said during a four-and-a-half-hour meeting with Putin in Moscow, according to the statement released by the Foreign Ministry of China.
According to the Chinese leader, “historically, conflicts have always been resolved on the basis of dialogue and negotiation.” Xi recalled that China issued a plan for peace in which he called for “a political solutionand opposed unilateral sanctions.
We believe that the more difficult it is, the more space must be left for peace. The more complex the conflict, the more efforts must be made not to abandon the dialogue,” Xi said.
The Chinese leader also stressed that China is willing to “continue to play a constructive role in promoting a political solution to the conflict.”
In an article written by Xi and published by a Russian newspaper, the Chinese leader called his trip to Russia a “friendship, cooperation and peace visit“.
After the visit to Moscow, the Chinese president is scheduled to talk by phone with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky. Xi’s trip follows the surprise announcement of the restoration of diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia after a meeting in Beijing, in a diplomatic victory for China.
The strongest Chinese leader in decades has sought to project an image of a world statesman, while calling on China to “center role” in the government of international affairs, in line with the economic and military rise of the country.
In particular, Xi proposed the Global Security Initiative, which aims to build a “Balanced, effective and sustainable global and regional security architecture“, by “abandoning Western geopolitical security theories”.
China considers partnership with Russia essential to oppose the liberal democratic order, at a time when its relationship with the United States is also going through a period of great tension, marked by trade and technological disputes or disputes over human rights, the status of Hong Kong or Taiwan, and the sovereignty of the South and East China seas.
In a peace plan, proposed in late February, Beijing stressed the importance of “respecting the sovereignty of all countries,” referring to Ukraine, but also called for an end to “cold war mentality“, in an implicit criticism of NATO enlargement. China also called for an end to Western sanctions on Russia.
China was one of the countries that abstained from voting on a resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of the UN Assembly.
Putin and Xi have met some 40 times since the Chinese leader took power in 2012.
Source: Observadora
