Letters | Ukraine peace plans by China and Indonesia have a common fault: they work against their proponent’s interests
- Readers discuss the importance of upholding territorial integrity in a peace plan, and why China sees no reason to play the US game
Let us be clear what is involved in Russia’s actions in Ukraine. A member state of the United Nations has used military force to acquire the territory of another member, in contravention of Article 2.4 of the United Nations Charter.
Two elements of the Ukraine war should worry China and Indonesia as they craft their diplomatic positions on the conflict and their engagement with Russia.
First, Russia justifies its military action by rejecting the historical legitimacy of accepted borders and by pointing to self-determination for the populations on whose behalf it claims to be intervening.
Second, Russia now relies on militarily achieved “facts on the ground” to assert that it is the efforts to reverse its acquisition that prolong the conflict and that threaten escalation into a regional or indeed nuclear war.