French President Emmanuel Macron and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping called on Thursday to resume peace talks to end the war in Ukraine as soon as possible. “We must resume the discussions to build a lasting peace,” said the French president after meeting with Xi. He said that “nuclear weapons cannot be used” in the conflict and condemned “all attacks against civilians.”
“We face great challenges at the international level, but in the matter of war, this state visit fuels the need to continue discussing to avoid any escalation in the world we know,” Macron said in his statement.
The Frenchman began a state visit to China on Wednesday, where he had not been since 2019, with the aim of strengthening the relationship with this country at a time of high tension, due to Beijing’s support for Russia, and to prevent China from supporting Russia. the latter militarily.
“Russian aggression in Ukraine has dealt a blow to this stability, it has put an end to decades of peace in Europe and I know I can count on you, so that Russia comes to its senses and everyone sits down at the negotiating table,” Macron told him in Joint press conference.
“China expects a political and negotiation solution. We are ready to work together with France from a reasonable attitude and aimed at avoiding a worsening of the situation,” said Xi, who called for “mitigating the impact” of the war, especially on the countries in development, and advocated addressing “the legitimate concerns of all parties.”
The French president warned his counterpart that a peace in Ukraine “must respect the attacked people, which is the Ukrainian people” and warned that there cannot be a “stable security organization in Europe” while a country on the continent is occupied.
The Kremlin ruled out the possibility of China mediating to stop the fighting in Ukraine, saying that Russia, which has suffered several setbacks, has no choice but to continue its offensive. “Of course, China has formidable and effective potential in terms of its mediation services,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told reporters, according to AFP.
“But the situation with Ukraine is complex, for the moment there is no prospect of a political solution. And, for the moment, we have no other solution than to continue with the special operation,” he added.
Xi visited Moscow in late March to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and issued a position paper calling for a political solution to the war in Ukraine, a proposal criticized by the West.
In his document, he opposes sanctions against Moscow, defends respect for the territorial integrity of countries, including Ukraine, and the “legitimate security concerns of all parties”, in reference to Russia.
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