Ukraine war: China and France agree to keep pushing for political settlement in top diplomats’ phone call

Wang Yi, director of China’s Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission, and French president’s diplomatic adviser Emmanuel Bonne ‘coordinated positions’
Call comes days after China’s special envoy for Eurasian affairs Li Hui concluded his tour to European capitals to promote peace talks

China-EU relations

Hayley Wong

Published: 3:00pm, 6 Jun 2023

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Top Chinese and French diplomats have signalled they are continuing to try for a political settlement in the Ukraine war as a Chinese peacemaking trip to Europe wrapped up having achieved little.

Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission, and Emmanuel Bonne, diplomatic adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron, “coordinated positions” on the Ukraine war in a phone call on Monday, according to a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry.

The ministry said Wang and Bonne agreed to “consistently accumulate and create conditions for the start of political settlement”.

03:25

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The phone call came days after China’s special envoy for Eurasian affairs Li Hui concluded his tour to European capitals, including Paris, to promote peace talks. In a media briefing on Friday, he said Beijing was considering another mission while acknowledging the difficulties of peace negotiation.

As Li met senior officials in Kyiv, Moscow, Warsaw, Paris, Berlin and Brussels, he said there were still many uncertainties but said Beijing was “ready to do anything conducive to easing tensions and promoting negotiations”.

Macron reportedly tasked Bonne with establishing a framework with Wang for future negotiations and the two had several conversations before Macron visited China in April, with Ukraine being a key topic of discussion.

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During the call on Monday, Wang, the leading diplomat in the Chinese party system, “expressed appreciation” towards Macron’s show of diplomatic independence on international platforms and more active engagement between Beijing and Europe.

“As the two driving forces of a multipolar world, China and Europe have more common interests than differences and should focus more on cooperation than competition,” he said, adding that China and France should work towards “comprehensive strategic partnership”.

In pursuit of a “partnering relationship”, France believed Europe should remain united and hold on to strategic independence, Bonne was quoted as saying, echoing the long-standing call of the French leader.

France has been one of the major European powers trying to convince China to use its influence over Russia to end the war in Ukraine. While in China in April, Macron was joined by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as part of a push towards this goal.

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China has been stepping up its profile as a peace broker in international crises while trying to shore up ties with Europe in recent months. After Wang took a tour to Europe in February and met Macron to discuss the Ukraine war, China’s foreign minister Qin Gang visited Paris in May to promote cooperation on “global challenges”.

As China-US rivalry mounts, Beijing welcomes Macron’s call for European “strategic autonomy”. During the French president’s visit to China, President Xi Jinping stressed that Beijing regarded Europe as “an independent pole in a multipolar world” and strategically independent from “any third party”.

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Beijing, on the other hand, has warned against the “de-risking” strategy Brussels has initiated against China.

Wang also met German foreign and security policy adviser Jens Plotner in Beijing on Thursday and exchanged views on the war in Ukraine.