Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday said he was planning to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) after Beijing called for urgent peace talks to end the war in Ukraine, while China yesterday sought to remove references to the Ukraine war from a G20 statement, officials said.
The Ukrainian president on Friday said he was doing his best to prevent Chinese arms supplies to Russia to avoid any risk of “World War III.”
“I am planning to meet with Xi Jinping,” he told reporters as Ukraine marked the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
Photo: AFP
“This will be important for world security,” he said.
Zelenskiy did not say when or where he was planning to meet Xi, but expressed hope that China would support a “just peace” and Ukraine.
“I really want to believe that China will not supply weapons to Russia. It is very important for me,” Zelenskiy said.
Earlier on Friday, China called for urgent peace talks as it released a plan to end the war in Ukraine. Several Western powers rebuffed the proposals and warned against Beijing’s close ties with Moscow.
Zelenskiy also said on Friday that he was convinced that only a country whose territory is under attack can initiate “any peace initiatives.”
Beijing has sought to position itself as a neutral party in the conflict, while maintaining close ties with strategic ally Russia.
Officials at a G20 finance ministers meetings in India yesterday said that China wanted to water down the language of a G20 leaders’ statement from November last year that had said that “most members strongly condemned the war” in Ukraine.
One delegate said on condition of anonymity that China wanted to remove the word “war.”
Spanish Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation Nadia Calvino said that because of “less constructive” approaches by some unspecified countries at talks among the world’s top 20 economies in Bengaluru, agreeing on a statement was proving “difficult.”
Representatives were negotiating until 2am yesterday, another delegate said.
Later yesterday, G20 chair India said that most members of the bloc “strongly condemned” the war in Ukraine and reiterated their positions demanding Russia’s withdrawal from Ukraine.
India said the statement condemning Russia’s war was endorsed by all members except Russia and China.
“The peaceful resolution of conflicts, efforts to address crises, as well as diplomacy and dialogue, are vital. Today’s era must not be of war,” the statement said.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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