Chinese President Xi Jinping and war criminal Vladimir Putin. Photo: AP/Scanpix Chinese President Xi Jinping is preparing for a visit to Moscow in the spring, where he will call for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, The Washington Post reports.
The Chinese leader could visit Russia in late April or early May. The visit is planned as a summit with war criminal Vladimir Putin.
Beijing says it wants to be more involved to “end the conflict”. A meeting with Putin would be an appeal to the dictator to push for multilateral peace talks, as well as not to use nuclear weapons.
At the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi announced that Beijing will soon present a peace initiative to end the war in Ukraine.
“We will firmly stand on the side of peace and dialogue. And this is China’s position on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis,” Wang said.
Currently, the visit is still being planned, it could take place at the end of April or the beginning of May, when Russia celebrates the victory over Germany in the Second World War. Last year, Putin used the event to compare Ukraine’s leadership to the Nazis.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said on Tuesday, February 21, that he has not seen an official document with China’s “peace plan”. Zelensky hopes that the peace formula proposed by Ukraine will be supported.
“The foreign minister told me that there was an informal communication, a dialogue with the Chinese counterpart, and actually said that they have an idea for a relevant document or resolution,” Zelenskiy said at a joint press briefing with Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni.
“We expect that our [peace] initiative will also be supported on the 23rd, when there will be a UN meeting.
It is important for me that it is one position, but at the same time I have not seen any official document,” said the Ukrainian president.
Ukraine is interested in all countries being involved in the process of ending the war as soon as possible and in supporting the Ukrainian peace formula, Zelensky said.
