KYIV, UKRAINE (AFP) – French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday he would visit China in April, and urged Beijing to pressure Russia to end the war in Ukraine.
China has sought to position itself as a neutral party on the conflict, even as it has maintained close ties with Russia and helped scuttle a joint statement condemning the war at a Group of 20 (G20) gathering in India.
It published a 12-point position paper on Friday that called for urgent peace talks and a “political settlement” to end the conflict.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday also expressed hopes to meet Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, calling it “important for world security”. Macron said on Saturday he would visit China in “early April” and urged Beijing to help “put pressure” on Russia to end the war. “The fact that China is engaging in peace efforts is a good thing,” Macron said on the sidelines of an agricultural show in Paris, in reference to the position paper.
Peace was only possible if “Russian aggression was halted, troops withdrawn, and the territorial sovereignty of Ukraine and its people was respected”, he added.
Earlier on Saturday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko would pay a state visit from tomorrow to March 2 at Xi’s invitation. A long-time ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Lukashenko allowed his country to be used as a launchpad for Moscow’s invasion of its pro-Western ally on February 24 last year.
Kyiv has expressed concerns that Belarus could again support Moscow in its war effort, with the countries announcing the creation of a joint regional force last October.
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang told his Belarusian counterpart Sergei Aleinik that Beijing was willing to work with Minsk to deepen mutual political trust during a phone conversation on Friday, China’s ministry said in a statement. China would also continue to support Belarus in maintaining national stability and oppose attempts by “external forces” to interfere in its internal affairs or impose “illegal” unilateral sanctions on Minsk, Qin told Aleinik. The diplomatic rift between Beijing, Moscow and the West was exposed on Saturday as G20 finance ministers failed to adopt a joint statement on the global economy after China sought to water down references to the Ukraine war. Russia said the United States (US), the European Union and the Group of 7 (G7) “destabilised” the talks in India by trying to impose their “diktat”.
The Chinese position paper urged all parties to “support Russia and Ukraine in working in the same direction and resuming direct dialogue as quickly as possible”.
