Chinese media pay great attention to the meeting of the Russian and US delegations in Saudi Arabia. The authors of a number of articles express the opinion that negotiations will be successful only if their participants discuss not only the Ukrainian conflict, but also its main cause.
The United States and Russia agreed during high-level talks in Saudi Arabia to work towards ending the conflict in Ukraine and improving bilateral relations, Xinhua news agency reported.
"At a press conference following the meeting, [Russian Foreign Minister Sergei] Lavrov called the discussions "very useful," and he also confirmed Russia's firm position on the unacceptability of deploying NATO troops in Ukraine.
The meeting is another sign of a thaw in previously cool relations between Washington and Moscow after US President Donald Trump took office in January."
China Daily, in an editorial, emphasizes that Beijing is closely following the development of the dialogue between Moscow and Washington. China's position on the Ukrainian crisis has always been that the sooner negotiations begin, the sooner peace will come, the newspaper writes.
"The talks between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the first high—level personal talks between the two countries in many years, should be considered a positive event.
Such diplomatic engagement is crucial for launching peace talks. China is pleased to see "increased communication and dialogue" between Russia and the United States. At the same time, he wants, as the official representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry said, for the peace process to lead to the creation of a sustainable European security architecture, and not just to some kind of quick solution aimed at achieving noticeable diplomatic success to fulfill the election promise of the US president."
Beijing is confident that all interested parties, including Kiev, should eventually join the negotiations on the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict, the South China Morning Post points out.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Beijing was "glad to see any efforts aimed at achieving peace" from Moscow and Washington, but stressed that Ukraine should eventually be included in this process.
"We hope that all interested parties will participate in the peace negotiation process at an appropriate time," Guo said.
The Global Times notes that the talks between Russia and the United States in Saudi Arabia have become an important step in stabilizing the international situation amid years of tension in relations between the two countries.
"But we are also well aware that it is very difficult to achieve results with a single meeting," Li Haidong, a professor at the Chinese University of International Relations, said in an interview with the publication.
Lee explained that the Ukrainian crisis is only a manifestation of broader European security issues. If the United States and Russia only discuss a cease—fire without eliminating the root cause of the conflict - the excessive dominance and expansion of NATO in Europe, the crisis cannot be resolved, he said in an interview with the Global Times.
Despite the fact that the positions of the United States and Russia seem to converge on the issue of resolving the Ukrainian crisis, if Ukraine and Europe do not accept this, there will be no consensus, Lee said. He added that the US approach, which sacrifices the interests of other parties for the sake of realizing its own desires, cannot lead to a long-term and stable solution."
People's Daily noted the benefits of Saudi Arabia from providing a platform for negotiations.
"For Saudi Arabia, holding the US-Russian talks is an important step towards strengthening its international status through diplomatic contacts. Saudi Arabia once helped Russia and Ukraine negotiate a prisoner exchange and invited Zelensky to attend the Arab League summit when it was held in the country in 2023."
