 "China supports peace talks on Ukraine, warns against political trade-offs for Gaza")
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi reiterated China’s support for efforts that promote peace talks in Ukraine during a United Nations Security Council meeting on Tuesday, highlighting Beijing’s stance on global stability and multilateral cooperation.
After Russian and US officials met in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday and agreed to press ahead with efforts to end the war in Ukraine, Wang told the Security Council: ”China supports all efforts conducive to peace talks.”
Wang outlined four key principles put forward by President Xi Jinping in April 2024, which include refraining from selfish gains, avoiding exacerbation of conflicts, fostering conditions for peace and minimising negative impacts on the world economy and global supply chains, Xinhua reported.
Talking about the West Asia, Wang said it was vital to uphold the two-state solution. U.S. President Donald Trump caused outrage earlier this month when he proposed that the U.S. should take over the Gaza Strip and Gazans should be resettled elsewhere.
”Gaza and the West Bank are the homeland of the Palestinian people, not a bargaining chip in political trade-offs. The Palestinians governing Palestine is an important principle that must be followed in the post-conflict governance of Gaza,” he said.
Wang chaired a meeting of the 15-member Security Council on multilateralism because China is president for February.
Speaking broadly, he said countries ”cannot just sit by and watch multilateral institutions become dysfunctional and ineffective due to their own failure to cooperate,” urging the Security Council to ”rise above narrow-minded, geopolitical considerations” to champion solidarity and cooperation.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts”Any act of bullying, trickery or extortion is a flagrant violation of the basic norms of international relations. Any unilateral sanction that circumvents Security Council authorization lacks legal basis, defies justification and contradicts common sense,” said Wang, without elaborating.
US, Russia agree to start push towards peace
Earlier today, the United States and Russia agreed to address “irritants” to the U.S.-Russia relationship and begin working on a path to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, the State Department said, making clear the effort was in its early stages.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff met for 4.5 hours with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Saudi Arabia as a follow-up to U.S. President Donald Trump’s telephone call with Russia President Vladimir Putin last week.
They discussed establishing a mechanism to address “irritants to our bilateral relationship” with the goal of normalizing diplomatic relations, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement.
The two sides also appointed high-level teams to work on ending the Ukraine conflict “as soon as possible in a way that is enduring, sustainable, and acceptable to all sides,” she said.
The State Department said the meeting was an important step in an incipient process.
“One phone call followed by one meeting is not sufficient to establish enduring peace,” Bruce said.
All sides must make concessions in Ukraine talks
Senior US officials said on Tuesday after talks with a Russian delegation in Saudi Arabia that all sides will need to make concessions in order to bring about an end to the three-year-old Ukraine war.
“Today is the first step of a long and difficult journey but an important one,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after the talks in Riyadh.
White House national security adviser Mike Waltz, also part of the U.S. delegation alongside special envoy Steve Witkoff, told reporters that no date had been set for a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The U.S. delegation said negotiations would include discussions about territory and security guarantees for Ukraine. Russia controls about a fifth of Ukraine.
Rubio said Trump wants to move quickly to try to bring an end to the war, and that the goal is a fair, enduring and sustainable agreement.
Amid concerns in Ukraine and among European allies about the U.S.-led effort, Rubio said the goal is an agreement that is “acceptable to everyone involved in it, and that obviously includes Ukraine, but also our partners in Europe, and, of course, the Russian side as well.”
With inputs from agencies
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