The United States urges China to attend a peace conference on Ukraine, but Beijing resists due to Russia’s non-attendance, according to Reuters.
A US State Department official revealed on Thursday that his country once again urged Beijing to attend this month’s planned summit on Ukraine in Switzerland.
We certainly would encourage China to participate in that summit. They’ve attended previous versions of the summit. We thought their presence was helpful. We think their presence would be helpful here.
Ukraine claims that more than 100 countries have accepted its invitation to the summit to discuss a peace plan proposed by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
However, Switzerland did not invite Russia, one of the parties to the armed conflict, which prompted China to withdraw from the 15-16 June conference. Moscow and Beijing called the summit “pointless” without Russia’s participation.
Previously, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced his refusal to attend the peace conference. His South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa will also not participate. Representatives of Saudi Arabia, India and Pakistan declined to attend the summit, too.
While the United States is urging China to attend the peace conference, US President Joe Biden is reportedly not attending. Instead, he plans to hold a fundraiser for the US elections with Hollywood star Julia Roberts.
