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The Jeddah meeting consolidated the “consensus on the political solution”, according to Beijing

China has affirmed this Wednesday that the meeting on Ukraine held last weekend in the Saudi city of Jeddah, in which an envoy from Beijing participated, helped “consolidate the consensus” to “find a political solution”.

The Jeddah meeting was held behind closed doors and with total discretion regarding the content, as was the case with the one previously held in Copenhagen, and brought together senior officials not only from Western powers, but also from some countries considered allies of Russia such as India and Brazil, in addition to China.

“The Chinese Government’s representative for Eurasian Affairs, Li Hui, maintained extensive contact and communication with all parties on a political solution to the Ukraine ‘crisis’. He listened to everyone’s views and proposals and worked for greater consensus for a political solution to the war in Ukraine,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on its website. According to Beijing, “China’s positive role in facilitating peace talks was fully recognized” during the meeting.

China will continue to “strengthen dialogue” on the basis of its 12-point peace proposal to achieve “a political solution,” the note added, without going into specific details. According to Western diplomats, the choice of Jeddah as the venue may have been related to the objective of encouraging China to participate in the meeting, since Beijing has good relations with Riyadh.

Li acknowledged in June “difficulties” for Ukraine and Russia to start peace negotiations, and insisted that Beijing is “prepared to do what is necessary” to promote these talks. In May, the Chinese special envoy had assured in Kiev that “all parties have to create the conditions to end the war” and “start peace talks”, while the Ukrainian authorities replied that they would not accept any peace plan that suppose the loss of territory.

Beijing, which says it has always maintained an “objective stance” on the conflict, presented a detailed 12-point position paper earlier this year that was met with skepticism by Ukraine and its Western allies.

At the end of April and for the first time since the start of the war, Chinese President Xi Jinping had a telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodimir Zelensky. Xi explained to Zelensky that he would not watch “the conflict from afar hoping for profit” or add “more fuel to the fire”, saying that “dialogue and negotiation” are “the only way out”.

Since the outbreak of the war, China, which opposes sanctions against Moscow, has reiterated the importance of respecting the territorial integrity of countries, including Ukraine, and the “legitimate security concerns of all parties,” referring to to Russia. Given its good relations with Russia, numerous international voices have called for Beijing to use its influence over Moscow to stop the conflict. (EFE)

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