Chinese leader Xi Jinping appealed for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in a phone call on Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, warning “there is no winner in a nuclear war,” state media said, in a long-anticipated conversation after Beijing said it wanted to act as a peace mediator.
Xi’s government will send a “special representative” to Ukraine for talks about a possible “political settlement,” said a government statement reported by state TV.
China has tried to appear neutral in the war but refused to criticize Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a joint statement before the February 2020 invasion saying their governments had a “no limits friendship.”
Chinese state TV: President Xi Jinping has talked with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by phone, reports AP
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) April 26, 2023
Xi’s government released a peace proposal in February and called for a cease-fire and talks.
“Negotiation is the only viable way out,” state TV said in a report on Xi’s comments to Zelenskyy.
“There is no winner in a nuclear war,” the report said. “All parties concerned should remain calm and restrained in dealing with the nuclear issue and truly look at the future and destiny of themselves and humanity as a whole and work together to manage the crisis.”
China, that’s trying to play a negotiator, has never been neutral in its true sense. It either voted in favour of Moscow or restrained itself from voting every time the nations had to choose between Russia and Ukraine. Though its preaching peace to the two states now, it has never condemned what Putin’s government did to Ukraine in the name of sovereignty and peace.
