2024-07-25 23:32:41
The 3-day visit of Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to China, which began on Tuesday, and his yesterday’s meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi is today a key topic in leading American publications, BTA reported.
A Ukrainian foreign minister is visiting China for the first time since the beginning of the Russian invasion, which led to strained relations between Kiev and Beijing, writes the Washington Post.
China maintains close ties with Russia and insists that the war be ended in a way that takes into account the interests of both warring parties. This position of Beijing is in conflict not only with that of Kiev, but also with the countries of the West, which insist on an agreement based on the complete withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine, the publication commented.
“I am convinced that a just peace in Ukraine is in China’s strategic interest, and China’s role as a global power fighting for peace is important,” Kuleba said at the beginning of his visit.
Kuleba is expected to lobby for the presence of Chinese representatives at another peace conference before the US presidential election in early November. The visit of the Ukrainian foreign minister is based on the assessment that without the participation of China, it will hardly be possible to reach a peace agreement favorable to Ukraine, the “Washington Post” also writes.
Chinese officials say Beijing and Kiev maintain friendly relations and cooperate. Van noted in his opening speech on the occasion of Kuleba’s visit that bilateral relations continue to develop normally “despite the complex and ever-changing international and regional situation” and cited the growth of trade as an example.
“Washington Post” also dwells on the issue of the military aid that Beijing provides to Moscow.
China is not believed to be selling weapons directly to Russia, but there have been numerous reports of the sale of dual-use goods that have been used by the Russian military, the paper said.
Ukrainian military officials claim that Russian units have used Chinese artillery shells, but it is not clear whether the source is Beijing or whether they were acquired from Russia through a third party.
Kuleba arrived in China at a time when Ukraine is slowly losing ground in the war and faces increasing uncertainty about the level of support it will receive from the West in the future, writes the New York Times. Moscow and Kiev held brief peace talks in the spring of 2022, but they quickly collapsed, the publication recalls.
Wang said China is committed to finding a political solution to the crisis, adding that while the time has not yet come, Moscow and Kiev have sent “signals of their willingness to negotiate,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a press release. , quoted by the New York Times.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Kuleba’s expressed willingness to negotiate with Russia was “in tune” with Moscow’s position, adding that his country had never refused negotiations.
Ukrainian and Western officials rejected the idea that Russia was ready for good faith talks. They describe the Kremlin’s frequent statements on this issue as a propaganda ploy intended to mask Moscow’s determination to force Ukraine to capitulate, the American newspaper commented.
President Vladimir Putin’s terms of the ceasefire include the handover of four Ukrainian regions partially controlled by Russia and an assurance from Kiev that it will never join NATO. These demands are unacceptable for Ukraine, which, for its part, insists on regaining full control over its territories and joining the alliance, the American publication summarizes.
Last year, China tried to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, proposing a 12-point peace plan that was quickly rejected by European leaders. Since then, Beijing has refrained from public appearances related to the conflict, and last month it refused to participate in a peace conference hosted by Switzerland, arguing that Russia was not invited to the consultations, the New York Times recalled.
Ultimately, the summit failed to gain support from regional powers such as India and Saudi Arabia, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently said that his country wanted to organize a new peace forum before the US presidential election and that Russia should participate in the talks .
Beijing may have judged now to be an opportune time to intervene, in part out of a belief that Ukraine might take a more realistic view of end-of-war scenarios, Yun Sun, head of the China Program at the New York Times, told The New York Times. the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center. “The Chinese want to play the role of a peacemaker, but so far they could not get it because the time was not ripe and Ukraine still believed it could win the war,” Sun added.
There is a growing understanding in Kiev that peace talks without China’s participation “will not make sense,” said Natalia Butyrska, an expert on Ukrainian-Asian relations at the Kyiv-based New European Center think tank. “China is the country that can make Russia join the peace talks,” Butyrska also said and pointed out that Kuleba’s visit is partly aimed at securing Beijing’s participation in the second peace summit.
Ukraine wants to speed up peace talks in part because of the prospect of Trump winning the U.S. presidential election, she said. Trump’s promise to end the war quickly raised fears in Kiev that the Republican would push for a peace deal that would allow Russia to keep occupied territories and leave it in a position to attack Ukraine again, Butyrska concluded, quoted by the New York Times “.