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Exclusive | China ‘trying its best’ to mediate in Ukraine war but must remain neutral: Britain’s Ben Wallace
- Britain’s defence chief, speaking on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, said he welcomed China’s efforts but it should not exercise ‘unreasonable power’ on Ukraine
- Wallace also said the UK was working with others to ensure ‘a peaceful resolution’ to the Taiwan issue, and stressed that South China Sea dispute couldn’t be dealt with by a party using ‘brute force’
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Dewey Simin Singapore
China is “trying its best” to mediate in the war in Ukraine but it should not overplay its role and exercise “unreasonable power” on Kyiv, British defence secretary Ben Wallace said on Friday.
On Britain’s role, he said it would do “everything we can in our power” to help if Ukraine decided to hammer out a peace deal with Russia.
“We will always stand by to help with peace. But fundamentally, that peace has to be where Ukraine chooses as a sovereign country to seek peace,” he said in an interview with This Week In Asia on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Friday. “It is their country that has been invaded and not anybody else’s.”
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Last month, Wallace travelled to Kyiv where he met his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksii Reznikov as Britain boosted military support for Ukraine, including the provision of the Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles.
China, meanwhile, has sought to offer itself as a neutral party while playing the role of mediator, most recently sending a special envoy to both Ukraine and Russia.
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