China calls on Ukraine, Russia to restart peace talks as soon as possible
China has entered the Russian-Ukrainian war saying it would like to broker a peace deal between the two warring nations.
China’s foreign minister on Thursday (March 16th) urged Kyiv and Moscow to resume peace talks “as soon as possible”, saying Beijing feared the conflict “would escalate and spiral out of control”.
In a statement, Beijing said it “hopes all parties will keep calm, exercise restraint, resume peace talks as soon as possible, and return to the path of political settlement,” the minister said. Foreign Affairs Qin Gang to his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, adding that “China hopes Ukraine and Russia will keep hope for dialogue and negotiation.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted that during his call with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang earlier today, they discussed “the importance of the principle of territorial integrity”. .
Beijing again floated the idea of the so-called peace plan it launched last month as the foreign minister urged Kyiv and Moscow to resume peace talks “as soon as possible”.
China has been criticized by Western countries for failing to condemn Moscow’s invasion of its European neighbor and last month strongly denied US claims that it was considering arms shipments to support the war from Russia.
Beijing recently said it hoped to play a constructive role in resolving geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine and presented the peace plan as a 12-point Foreign Ministry document for de-escalation. progress between the belligerent nations.
