EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has spoken out strongly in favour of China mediating in Russia’s war against Ukraine . “There is no alternative. We [Europeans] cannot be the mediators, that is clear … And it cannot be the US either. Who else? It has to be China, I trust in that,” Borrell said in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Mundo . But Borrell, who is from Spain, admitted that there were no firm plans by the warring sides and their supporters for outside mediation from China. “We haven’t asked for it and they [the Chinese] haven’t either.” Borrell defended the delivery of European weapons to the war zone and the imposition of harsh sanctions on Russia. ‘China will not ride to the rescue’ even as Russia trade defies sanctions These measures were absolutely necessary, he said, regardless of the simultaneous diplomatic efforts to settle the conflict. The arms shipments allow the Ukrainians to defend themselves, to be in a better position to negotiate and, if possible, to reach a ceasefire, the former Spanish foreign minister and ex-president of the European Parliament said. “And afterwards, diplomacy must play its part,” and here China “must play a role,” he stressed.
