Speaker 1 (00:00):
China has supported Putin and Russia, but has for the most part remained on the sidelines militarily. But in recent days, the communist country has hinted at a more active role and has now put forward a 12 point peace proposal. However, most of the points were very general and did not contain specific proposals to end the war. Hong Kong correspondent, Richard Kimber, has more on the details of that memo.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
This proposal from China’s foreign ministry calls on the international community to do everything it can to deescalate the situation and to enable peace talks between the two sides. It specifically says that the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all countries must be upheld, but it balances that by also saying that unilateral sanctions being applied as part of efforts to deal with this crisis must be removed. That’s seen as being criticism of the United Nations and the US for placing sanctions on Russia. There’s also further support for Russia in the sense that the plan outlines the fact that it believes that security concerns that Russia has over the expansion of military blocks, understood to be a reference to NATO, must also be taken seriously.
(01:05)
This proposal comes as China continues to try to portray itself as a neutral actor with regards to the Ukraine conflict and a peace broker. It has repeatedly said that it does not support the invasion, but it has also abstained from a recent United Nations resolution to call for an end to the conflict. There is also increasing scrutiny over China’s longer term intentions with regards to its relationship with Russia after high profile trips to Moscow in the past few days from China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, and expectations that that’ll be followed up by a trip to Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin from China’s President, Xi Jinping. During his time in Moscow, China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, said that the relationship between China and Russia was as solid as a rock and can stand the test of international risks. Political analysts here also note the fact that during the course of this one year conflict, President Xi Jinping of China is understood to have spoken to Vladimir Putin four times, but has never yet spoken to Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Richard Kimber for Scripps News in Hong Kong.