China's Xi calls on world powers to help Russia and Ukraine resume direct dialogue
UNB
Publish: 09 Jul 2024, 05:45 PM
TAIPEI,
Taiwan, July 09 (AP/UNB) - Chinese President Xi Jinping called on world powers
to help Russia and Ukraine resume direct dialogue during a meeting Monday with
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Orban made a surprise
visit to China after similar trips last week to Russia and Ukraine to discuss
prospects for a peaceful settlement of more than the two-year war. Hungary
assumed the rotating presidency of the European Union this month and Orban has
since embarked on a peace mission, which, however, lacks the endorsement of
other European leaders.
"China is a key
power in creating the conditions for peace in the Russia-Ukraine war,"
Orban wrote on the social media platform X. "This is why I came to meet
with President Xi in Beijing, just two months after his official visit to
Budapest."
Orban is widely seen as
having the warmest relations with Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin among
European leaders. His visit to Moscow last week drew condemnation from Kyiv and
EU officials, who insisted Orban was not acting on behalf of the whole European
bloc.
Their rebuke failed to
deter Orban from extending a similar visit to Beijing, which he called
"Peace mission 3.0" in a picture posted on X.
During his meeting with
Xi, Orban described China as a stabilizing force amid global turbulence and
praised its "constructive and important" peace initiatives.
China has been promoting
its own six-point peace plan, which it issued with Brazil in May. Beijing says
it is neutral in the conflict, though in practice it supports Moscow through
frequent state visits, growing trade and joint military drills.
While hosting Orban, Xi
called on Russia and Ukraine to cease fire and on other major powers to create
an environment conducive to talks. Only when all major powers project
"positive energy rather than negative energy" can a cease-fire occur,
Xi said, according to CCTV.
Orban hosted the Chinese
leader in Hungary only two months ago as part of a three-country European tour
that also included stops in France and Serbia, which unlike the other two is
not a member of the EU or NATO.
During the trip, China
upgraded its ties with Hungary to an "all-weather, comprehensive strategic
partnership," one of its highest designations for foreign relations that
in addition to Hungary applies only to Belarus, Pakistan and Venezuela.
Hungary under Orban has
built substantial political and economic ties with China. The European nation
hosts a number of Chinese electric vehicle battery facilities, and in December
it announced that Chinese EV manufacturing giant BYD will open its first
European EV production factory in the south of the country.
The Hungarian prime
minister broadly opposes Western military aid to Ukraine and has blocked,
delayed or watered down EU efforts to assist Kyiv and impose sanctions on
Moscow over its invasion. Orban has long argued for a cessation of hostilities
in Ukraine but without outlining what that might mean for the country's
territorial integrity or future security.
That posture has
frustrated Hungary's EU and NATO allies, who have denounced Russia's invasion
as a breach of international law and a threat to the security of Eastern
Europe.
"With Europe trying
to increasingly speak with one voice in its relations to China and Russia,
Orban's unannounced and uncoordinated trips are not helping in signaling or
creating a unified European Union with regard to EU-China relations," said
Eva Seiwert, a China foreign policy and security expert with the Mercator
Institute for China Studies in Berlin.
Orban's proposals for
resolving the war largely correspond with Putin's interests, Seiwert added,
though the Hungarian prime minister might prove helpful in organizing a peace
conference in the future.
Standing alongside Orban
last week in Moscow, Putin declared that Russia wouldn't accept any cease-fire
or temporary break in hostilities that would allow Ukraine "to recoup
losses, regroup and rearm."
Putin repeated his
demand that Ukraine withdraw its troops from the four regions that Moscow
claims to have annexed in 2022 as a condition for any prospective peace talks.
Ukraine and its Western allies have rejected that demand, suggesting it is akin
to asking Kyiv to withdraw from its own territory.
China meanwhile has
spread its influence in Central Asia and Eastern Europe in recent years beyond
its "no limits" partnership with Moscow. Over the weekend, China held
"anti-terror" military drills with Belarus - a key ally of Russia -
near the border with Poland. The drills came after last week Belarus joined a
regional security organization led by China and Russia.
Orban will next head to
Washington, D.C., where NATO leaders are holding a summit to discuss ways to
assure Ukraine of the alliance's continued support.
"Next stop:
Washington," Orban posted on his social media account Monday. It was not
clear whether he would meet separately with President Joe Biden, or Donald
Trump, whose presidential candidacy Orban openly supports.
END/UNB/AP/PR