2024-07-25 00:05:11
The ministers met in Guangzhou, southern China.
Wang and Kuleba “exchanged views on the Ukraine crisis,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters.
“Although the conditions and time are not yet ripe, we support all efforts that promote peace and are ready to continue to work constructively to achieve a ceasefire and resume peace talks,” Mao said.
“China has always been determined to promote a political solution to the crisis,” she added.
Kuleba said in a statement on Wednesday that Ukraine “also wants to follow the path of peace, reconstruction and development.”
“I am sure that these are our common strategic priorities,” the minister said, adding that “Russia’s aggression has destroyed peace and slowed down development.”
As the Chinese Foreign Ministry states in a statement, the Ukrainian minister, during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Guangzhou, expressed that Kyiv is ready to talk with Moscow.
“The Ukrainian side is ready for dialogue and negotiations with the Russian side. Of course, the negotiations must be reasonable and focused, aimed at a just and stable peace,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry quoted Kuleba as saying.
According to the version of the Chinese Ministry, the Ukrainian side has “carefully familiarized itself” with the peace plan offered by China and Brazil in May 2024.
News agency “Reuters” reports that the talks between Van and Kuleba lasted for three hours.
“Longer than planned. It was a very deep and specific conversation,” an interlocutor from the Ukrainian delegation told “Reuters”.
A day before, Kuleba expressed that direct talks between Kyiv and Beijing are needed on how to end the war started by Russia against Ukraine.
China tries to maintain that it is neutral in this war and, unlike the West, does not provide lethal military aid to either side.
But Beijing’s increasingly close cooperation with Moscow has led Western countries to point out that China is actually providing Russia with the ability to continue the war.
Beijing said on Tuesday that the talks would focus on bilateral relations and “other issues” of interest to both sides.
Kuleba’s visit, which will last until Friday, is the first time that such a high-ranking Ukrainian official has visited China since the beginning of Russia’s repeated invasion in February 2022.
2024-07-25 00:05:11