Putin welcomes China’s peace plan for Ukraine – and sees it as a deeper understanding of the conflict and its global geopolitical significance.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is traveling to Beijing this week, according to China. Putin will visit the Chinese capital on Thursday and Friday at the invitation of President Xi Jinping, the Foreign Ministry in Beijing said on Tuesday.
It is Putin’s first trip abroad since his re-election in March and his second visit to China in seven months. As “ Reuters ” reports, Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated his support for China’s plan to peacefully resolve the Ukraine crisis in an interview.
Putin said that China fully understands the conflict and its background. The interview was conducted before Putin’s visit to Beijing. He made it clear that Russia remains open to dialogue and negotiations to resolve the two-year-old conflict.
The plan and “principles” released by President Xi Jinping last month would take into account the factors that caused the conflict, according to Putin. According to Putin, the additional principles laid down by Xi in talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz were “realistic and constructive steps” that further developed “the idea of the need to overcome the Cold War mentality.”
Beijing had already presented a 12-point plan more than a year ago that laid out general principles for ending the war but provided no specific details. As Reuters reports, the plan received a lukewarm reception in both Russia and Ukraine, while the US criticized China for presenting itself as a peacemaker but reflecting Russia’s “false narrative” and failing to condemn its invasion.
Russia sees the conflict as a fight against the “collective West,” which ignores Moscow’s security concerns by encouraging NATO’s eastward expansion and military activity close to Russia.
Russia and China had proclaimed a “borderless” relationship just days before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. However, Beijing has so far avoided providing actual weapons and ammunition to Russia’s war effort.
In his peace plan, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky calls for the withdrawal of Russian troops, the restoration of the 1991 post-Soviet borders and Russia’s responsibility for its actions. A “peace summit” is planned for June in Switzerland.
However, Russia is not invited and describes the initiative as meaningless. According to Reuters, China has taken part in some preparatory talks for the summit and Ukraine has made major efforts to persuade it to attend.