Beijing. April 16th. INTERFAX - China supports holding a peace conference on the situation in Ukraine, but only if all interested parties, including Russia, take part in it, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday at a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
"China encourages all efforts leading to a peaceful solution to the crisis and supports the timely convening of an international peace conference, recognized by both Russia and Ukraine, with the participation of all parties," the EFE news agency quoted Xi Jinping as saying.
"It is necessary to defuse the situation and no longer add fuel to the fire, it is necessary to create conditions for restoring peace and preventing further escalation of the conflict," the Chinese president added.
In addition, the leaders of both states agreed on the need to "support the principles of the United Nations and oppose the use of nuclear weapons or attacks on peaceful targets or nuclear facilities." They also agreed to "properly address food security issues" and follow the principles of international humanitarian law.
Earlier, the Welt newspaper reported that the crisis in Ukraine and ways to overcome it became one of the topics of negotiations between Scholz and Xi Jinping at a meeting in Beijing.
Scholz is scheduled to hold talks with Chinese Premier Li Qiang later on Tuesday. The parties are expected to discuss economic issues and the issue of fair competition, as well as exchange views on the situation in the Middle East after Iran's attack on Israel.
Earlier, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said that negotiations on a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis cannot take place without Russia, and expressed hope for Moscow's participation in this dialogue in the future.
The Minister clarified that, nevertheless, the conference scheduled for June 15-16 will be held without the participation of Russian representatives.
The Swiss Federal Council announced that the authorities will host the event at the Burgenstock resort in central Switzerland. The negotiations on the organization of the conference were attended by the European Union, the G7 countries and representatives of the countries of the so-called "global South", including Brazil, China, Ethiopia, India, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.
Bloomberg noted that several countries insist on Russia's participation in the conference, but Kiev wants to reach an agreement on key principles that "form the basis for a future agreement" before involving Moscow in the dialogue.
In March, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Russia did not intend to participate in an international conference on peace in Ukraine planned in Switzerland. Explaining the reasons for this decision, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stressed: "This forum will be dedicated to promoting the ultimatum of the Zelensky formula, although its Swiss organizers pretend to be looking for a common denominator of peace initiatives from different countries."
She expressed her conviction that "Switzerland can hardly serve as a platform for various peacekeeping efforts, since this presupposes the neutral status that Bern has lost."
Zakharova also noted that "the experience of the Minsk agreements and the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations in 2022 showed the incompetence of Kiev and the West."