China-EU summit: war in Ukraine looms over long-delayed talks

Name: 3 European leaders travel to Kyiv war zone in bold show of support to Ukrainian leader Zelensky
Uploaded: 2022-03-28T03:00:17.000Z
Duration: 1 min 51 s
Description: 3 European leaders travel to Kyiv war zone in bold show of support to Ukrainian leader Zelensky

European leaders expected to lobby Beijing to use its influence on Moscow to stop the conflict

The gathering could also be a chance to assess the EU’s shift from an economic bloc to a geopolitical player, analyst says

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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is set to dominate the China-EU summit this week. Photo: AFP

Kinling Lo

Published: 11:00am, 28 Mar 2022Updated: 3:45pm, 28 Mar 2022

Despite Beijing’s attempts to separate the Ukraine issue from its ties with Europe, Russia’s invasion is set to hang heavily over the long-delayed annual China-EU summit on Friday, according to sources and diplomatic observers.

“This time we have made it clear to China that we really want to talk about Ukraine,” a European government source with knowledge of the summit agenda said.

Another European government source briefed on the summit said: “It is reasonable to expect China to stick to the sanctions and not to provide support to Russia in any way – at least not doing more than what they have done.”

It is also understood that the human rights dialogue – a sideline component of the annual summit – will be put off for a third year but the stalled bilateral trade deal – the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) – will still be up for discussion when the gathering gets under way on April 1.

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3 European leaders travel to Kyiv war zone in bold show of support to Ukrainian leader Zelensky

The summit was last held in June 2020 and was called off last year after Brussels’ accusations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang set off a flurry of sanctions between the European Union and China.