Open and Frank talks

Chinese leaders notify EU counterparts that they will push for stability in Ukraine in their ‘own respective way’, driving back against calls for a rigorous approach. China has proposed the European Union assurances that it will pursue stability in Ukraine as it withstood pressure from the group to take up a harsher stance on Russia.

• In the first China-EU meeting for two years, Premier Li Keqiang said to EU leaders that Beijing would pursue peace in “its way”, while President Xi Jinping, who has formulated close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, announced that he hoped that the EU would undertake an “independent” strategy, in a nod to Europe’s close connections with the United States. DURING THE VIRTUAL MEETING, the EU instructed Beijing not to permit Moscow to bypass Western sanctions exerted over Russia’s incursion of Ukraine. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen explained that leaders from both sides “exchanged very plainly contradicting views” on many issues but communicated hopes that China would wield its influence as the main power and permanent unit of the UN Security Council to assure Russia to stop the fighting.

“We called on China to support the end of the conflict in Ukraine. China cannot turn a blind eye to Russia’s infringement of international law,” European Council President Charles Michel informed a report briefing with von der Leyen after the first meeting since December 30, 2020.

“Any endeavours to elude sanctions or deliver aid to Russia would extend the war,” he announced.