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Russia-Ukraine War: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is planning to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to discuss the latter’s proposal on ending the ongoing war with Russia, reported BBC.
Speaking on the first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Zelensky said he plans to meet China’s President Xi Jinping to discuss Beijing’s peace proposals.
“I really want to believe that China will not supply weapons to Russia,” he said, as quoted by the BBC.
The report said that China’s plan calls for peace talks and respect for national sovereignty, but the 12-point document does not specifically say that Russia must withdraw its troops from Ukraine. The document, as mentioned in the BBC report, also condemns the “unilateral sanctions” that have been put on Moscow by Ukraine’s allies in the West.
There has been no response from the Chinese side so far to Zelensky’s call for a meeting with Jinping.
Meanwhile, Russia hailed the Chinese peace proposals. “We share Beijing’s views,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement, BBC reported.
This comes after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier this week that Beijing was considering supplying weapons and ammunition to Russia. However, China strongly denied the claim. On Friday, BBC report said, American media again reported that the Chinese government was considering sending drones and artillery shells to Moscow.
As per the report, speaking on China’s peace proposals, US President Joe Biden told ABC News, “(Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s applauding it, so how could it be any good? I’ve seen nothing in the plan that would indicate that there is something that would be beneficial to anyone other than Russia.”
The Chinese peace plan follows China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to Moscow, where he met President Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday. Following his meeting, he was quoted by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency as saying that Beijing was willing to “deepen political trust” and “strengthen strategic coordination” with Moscow, reported BBC.
Reacting to the proposals, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Beijing “doesn’t have much credibility” because it had “not been able to condemn the illegal invasion of Ukraine”.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict completed one year on Friday. Russian President Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
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