Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Chinese President Xi Jinping may meet next month. This was facilitated by the improvement of diplomatic contacts between the countries, Hromadske reports.
Reuters writes about this with reference to former Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Oleksandr Chalyi.
He believes that Kyiv’s diplomacy with Beijing has improved, and therefore a meeting is now possible. Chalyi added that “now we all in Ukraine are waiting for some contacts, direct contacts between President Zelenskyy and President Xi”.
Cui Hongjian, director of the European Studies Department at the China Institute of International Studies, also hinted that a meeting between the two leaders is possible and said that they are “ready to do everything that promotes peace”.
He also said that China is open to joining the upcoming peace summit, as they do not want their efforts to be “wasted”.
China’s position on the war in Ukraine
Earlier, China proposed its own “peace plan” to resolve the war in Ukraine. Russian leader Vladimir Putin said that “many of the provisions of the peace plan put forward by China are in line with Russian approaches” and “can be taken as a basis for a peaceful settlement”.
The Ukrainian government responded that it did not agree with all the points, but noted that China had started talking about Ukraine.
China also once took part in a two-day summit in Saudi Arabia to discuss President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s “peace formula.” Afterward, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi promised Russia to “uphold an independent and unbiased position”.
On July 23-25, the then Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba visited China at the invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
