China would not attend Swiss peace conference on Ukraine, as it failed to meet expectations, China’s foreign ministry said, according to Reuters.
Switzerland is seeking a large attendance at the mid-June summit that would lay the groundwork for a peace process in Ukraine. However, the organisers also did not invite Russia. Moscow, for its part, considered the talks pointless without its participation.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning called for peace initiatives to be discussed “in a fair and equal manner.”
The arrangements for the meeting still fall far short of China’s requests and the general expectations of the international community, making it difficult for China to participate. China has always insisted that an international peace conference should be endorsed by both Russia and Ukraine, with the equal participation of all parties, and that all peace proposals should be discussed in a fair and equal manner.
China informed some diplomats this week that it had declined the invitation. Beijing stated that both Russia and Ukraine should recognise the conference.
We are very sorry that the Chinese side does not use the opportunity to present its position on the platform of the Summit in Switzerland.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested on Thursday that China could arrange a peace conference involving Russia and Ukraine. During a visit to China this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that Ukraine could use the Swiss peace conference to persuade a wider group of countries to back Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s demand for a full withdrawal of Russian troops.
Putin also backed China’s plan to resolve the crisis peacefully. He stated that Beijing “had a full understanding of what lay behind the crisis.”
China’s 12-point plan
Russia and China proclaimed a “no limits” relationship just days before the outbreak of war in Ukraine in February 2022. However, Beijing has so far avoided providing actual weapons and ammunition to Russia.
More than a year ago, Beijing put forward a 12-point document outlining general principles for ending the war. Last week, China and Brazil signed a joint statement calling for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
In January, Ukraine invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend a planned summit of world leaders in Switzerland. Zelensky then urged US President Joe Biden to attend this week. However, Washington did not confirm whom it would send to the conference. According to Bloomberg, Biden will miss the summit because of a campaign fundraiser in California.
Since the outbreak of the war, China’s special envoy for Eurasian affairs Li Hui has conducted three rounds of shuttle diplomacy between various countries in Europe and the Middle East, Ukraine and Russia.
According to China’s Foreign Ministry, in the latest round of talks this month, Beijing put forward proposals to support prisoner-of-war exchanges, counter the use of nuclear and biological weapons and counter armed attacks on civilian nuclear facilities.
China insists that its dual-use exports maintain normal trade relations with Russia.
