French President Emmanuel Macron to visit China in April on mission to help end Ukraine war
- Macron aims to enlist Beijing to pressure Moscow into a resolution of the conflict
- France has some incentives to offer but it won’t be easy, analyst says
Macron said in Paris on Saturday that peace was only possible if “the Russian aggression was halted, troops withdrawn and [the] territorial sovereignty of Ukraine and its people was respected”.
“The fact that China is engaging in peace efforts is a good thing,” he said. “China must help us put pressure on Russia so that it never uses chemical or nuclear weapons, [an effort] which China has already made, and that it stops its aggression as a precondition for talks.”
“Our president will certainly raise [the issue of] Ukraine when he goes to China,” she said in an academic forum at the University of Hong Kong on Thursday.
02:21
China releases 12-point position paper on 1-year anniversary of Russian invasion of Ukraine
Song Luzheng, an international affairs researcher at Fudan University, said Macron could not wait until the second half of this year to make the trip.
“For France, the most important thing now is the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Europe can’t bear the long-term stand-off and France can’t take it either,” Song said.
“These steps would be difficult [for France] to take as every decision would be taken as a reflection of the values that they hold,” he said.
02:06
Beijing urges West to ‘stop throwing blame at China’ over Ukraine
In the document Beijing said it opposed the use of sanctions and nuclear weapons, advocated an immediate ceasefire and called on all parties to stop “fanning the flames” of the war and abandon their “cold war mentality”.
China has stepped up engagement with Europe in recent weeks, including talks between top diplomat Wang Yi and Macron.
During his trip to Europe, Wang said Beijing would resume some dialogues with the European Union.
China has sought to present itself as a neutral party throughout the Ukraine crisis but Beijing’s “unlimited friendship” with Moscow raised questions about the credibility of China’s peace proposals, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen suggested on Friday.
EU spokeswoman Nabila Massrali said the 12-point paper emphasised certain principles of the UN Charter, but was selective and insufficient about the implications for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse, Reuters and Kinling Lo
