China says it will not attend Swiss peace conference on Ukraine

China will not attend a peace conference on Ukraine in Switzerland next month, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday, confirming an exclusive Reuters report.

Switzerland is seeking broad participation from different parts of the world for the mid-June meeting, which it hopes will lay the foundations for a peace process in Ukraine.

Moscow was not invited and considers the negotiations meaningless without its participation.

“Preparations for the meeting still fall far short of China's requests and the general expectations of the international community, making China's participation difficult,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning.

“China has always insisted that an international peace conference should be supported by both Russia and Ukraine, with the equal participation of all parties, and that all peace proposals should be discussed fairly and equally. Otherwise, it will be difficult for it to play a substantive role in restoring peace,” he added.

China this week informed some diplomats that it had declined the invitation, saying its conditions had not been met, four sources previously told Reuters.

The conditions included that the conference be recognized by both Russia and Ukraine, there must be equal participation by all parties and a fair discussion of all proposals, one of the sources said.

“We are very sorry that the Chinese side does not take the opportunity to present its position on the Summit platform in Switzerland,” a spokesman for the Ukrainian embassy in Beijing said in a statement to Reuters.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested on Thursday (30) that China could organize a peace conference in which Russia and Ukraine would participate.

During a visit to China this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine could use the Swiss talks to try to get a broader group of countries to support Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's demand for a complete withdrawal from Russia. .

Putin also expressed support for China's plan for a peaceful resolution of the crisis, saying Beijing had full understanding of what was behind the crisis.

The Swiss Foreign Ministry said it noted that the conditions for China's participation had not yet been met, especially as Russia was “currently not involved” in the peace conference.

“For Switzerland, Russia's involvement in the peace process is also essential. The (ministry) is actively working to involve Russia in the peace process,” she added.

The Swiss ministry, which has already highlighted its desire to involve Russia in the peace process, said that more than 80 countries have confirmed their participation in the conference.

China's 12-point plan

Russia and China proclaimed a “boundless” relationship just days before Moscow launches its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but Beijing has so far avoided supplying arms and ammunition to Russia’s war effort.

Beijing presented a 12-point document more than a year ago that laid out general principles for ending the war but did not go into detail.

China and Brazil last week signed a joint declaration calling for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

In January, Ukraine invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to participate in the meeting of world leaders in Switzerland. Zelenskiy this week asked US President Joe Biden to attend, but Washington has not confirmed who he will send.

China's ambassador to Switzerland said in March that Beijing would consider attending the conference. Chinese representatives participated in a preparatory meeting for the meeting last summer in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

China's special envoy for Eurasian affairs, Li Hui, has carried out three rounds of diplomacy between several European and Middle Eastern countries, Ukraine and Russia since the start of the invasion.

In the last round this month, Beijing put forward proposals to support the exchange of prisoners of war, oppose the use of nuclear and biological weapons and oppose armed attacks on civilian nuclear facilities, according to a readout from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Chinese.

But several European leaders and the United States have repeatedly called on China to do more to reduce exports of dual-use items and critical components that underpin Russia's defense industrial base, which U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called “the greatest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War”.

China insists that its exports of dual-use items are subject to supervision and that it maintains normal trade relations with Russia.

The Russian embassy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Switzerland has sought to persuade more countries from the Global South, as well as China, to participate in the conference.

Source: CNN Brasil

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