Sun Qi, Executive Director of the Center for Russia and Central Asia Studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, noted that the Chinese president focused on the inadmissibility of nuclear war by all sidesSHANGHAI, April 28.
/Correspondent of TASS Ivan Kargapoltsev/. The dispatch of China's special representative to Ukraine indicates that Beijing has moved to practical actions in mediation with the aim of a political settlement of the conflict. This opinion was expressed on Friday by the executive director of the Center for Russia and Central Asia Studies of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Sun Qi, to a TASS correspondent.
"This information was personally announced by the Chairman of the [PRC] Xi Jinping. It also shows once again that China has begun to take practical steps to mediate in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, as well as to take real actions for a political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis," the expert believes.
According to him, the telephone conversation between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is of particular importance, given that this is the first contact between the leaders of China and Ukraine since the beginning of the SVO. The content of the conversation, Sun Qi believes, confirmed China's consistency in its policy regarding the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis, which is based on the promotion of peace negotiations and dialogue. Also, in his opinion, it is worth paying attention to the fact that the Chinese president emphasized the inadmissibility of nuclear war by all sides.
Promoting peace talks
Sun Qi also expressed the opinion that the conversation between Xi Jinping and Vladimir Zelensky opened up new opportunities to promote peace talks. However, the situation is complicated by the fact that there are countries that add fuel to the fire of the conflict.
"After direct communication between the heads of China and Ukraine, a new atmosphere has really been created around the Ukrainian crisis to promote peace talks, opening up new opportunities. However, it should also be recognized that regardless of whether it is possible to take advantage of the new opportunity, whether the new atmosphere persists and whether negotiations on promoting peace can achieve significant results and breakthroughs, in practice they face great uncertainty," the expert said.
The Russian-Ukrainian crisis has dragged on for more than a year, he stated, and there are no signs of a softening of the situation yet. An important reason for this, Sun Qi called "support from the outside world." "There are countries that watch the fire from the other side and stay away from it. There are countries that fan the fire and pour oil into it to aggravate the conflict. There are even more countries that take advantage of the opportunity to profit from the war, and some people in the United States openly advocate "fighting to the last Ukrainian at any cost," the expert said.
"Of course, the international community, especially all sides of the crisis, must move towards each other. Those countries that add fuel to the fire and use the opportunity to make a profit should make adjustments and change their approach. Otherwise, it will be difficult to achieve a breakthrough in the promotion of peace talks," he concluded.
On April 26, Xi Jinping held the first telephone conversation with Zelensky since Russia began a special military operation in Ukraine. The Chinese leader confirmed Beijing's readiness to facilitate the establishment of a negotiation process to end the conflict. He also announced his intention to send a special representative of the Chinese government on Eurasia issues "to Ukraine and other countries" to "discuss in detail with all interested parties the political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis." According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the delegation will be headed by former Ambassador to Russia Li Hui, the dates of his possible trip have not yet been indicated.