Ukraine war: China has ‘great potential’ to help end the conflict, Kyiv’s top diplomat says

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says ‘the trust is there’ between the two countries, according to report
It comes as Beijing’s special envoy continues efforts aimed at mediating peace talks, while Switzerland plans high-level peace conference

Ukraine war

Zhao Ziwen

Published: 4:56pm, 20 Mar 2024

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China has “great potential” to help end the Ukraine war and both countries remained “confident in each other”, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Tuesday, according to Chinese media reports.

“In bilateral relations between Ukraine and China, there has never been any major problem, so the trust is there,” Kuleba told an online briefing in response to a question from news portal The Paper. He also said Kyiv anticipated more dialogue with Beijing in the future, according to the report.

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Kuleba’s remarks on Tuesday came as Beijing continued engagement aimed at mediating peace talks amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, now in its third year, while Switzerland worked with Ukraine to plan a high-level peace conference.

Earlier this month, Li Hui, Beijing’s special envoy for Eurasian affairs, travelled to Kyiv, Moscow and European Union countries for a second round of talks to test the waters for peace negotiations. He called for a political settlement to the war as he met with Kuleba in Ukraine.

In February, Kuleba met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, where he agreed to continue dialogue and maintain contact at all levels.

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Kuleba described both meetings as “meaningful”, adding that Li had “participated in all the briefings and meetings to get a full picture of the situation”, The Paper reported.

Last month, during the annual meeting of China’s top legislative and political advisory bodies, Wang called for an international peace conference to end the Ukraine war.

“If peace talks cannot be opened, misunderstanding and miscalculations will accumulate and multiply, thus creating a bigger crisis,” he told reporters in Beijing.

China was expected to join the Ukraine peace summit hosted by Switzerland, and work on inviting Russia, the Post reported earlier.

On Monday, Chinese ambassador to Switzerland Wang Shiting told the Zurich-based Neue Zurcher Zeitung that China was “examining the possibility of taking part”.

China has positioned itself as a neutral party in the Ukraine war, and on the first anniversary of the conflict, released a 12-point peace plan. Beijing has not condemned Russia for the invasion.

During a meeting with Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Galuzin, Li agreed that Russia should be included in any proposed peace settlement for Ukraine, according to Moscow’s foreign ministry.

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At the Munich Security Conference last month, Wang said the conditions had not yet been right for peace talks and that the concerns of both Russia and Ukraine should be taken into consideration. He has not visited Ukraine since the war started in February 2022.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky talked by phone in April 2023.

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On Monday, as Russian President Vladimir Putin won re-election, Xi sent his congratulations and pledged his support for the China-Russia partnership.

The two leaders are expected to meet several times this year, according to China’s ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui, who last month announced that Putin planned to visit China this year.