China's President Xi Jinping is not only looking to close ranks with Moscow, but also with Minsk. On Tuesday he will meet the Belarusian ruler Lukashenko. The Chinese Foreign Ministry praised the relationship between the countries in the highest tones in advance.
Ahead of Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko's visit, China hailed its "weatherproof and comprehensive" partnership with Belarus. "Since diplomatic relations were established 31 years ago, mutual political trust has been steadily strengthened," said a spokeswoman for China's foreign ministry. China looks forward to using the visit as an opportunity to further promote cooperation between the two countries in all areas.
Lukashenko is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Belarus is a neighboring country to both Ukraine and Russia, but is heavily dependent on Moscow financially and politically.
According to information from Beijing, Lukashenko will arrive in China on Tuesday for a state visit and will stay until Thursday. His visit, at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, comes just days after China released a position paper on the war in Ukraine, in which Beijing reiterated its commitment to being a neutral party and called for dialogue between the two sides.
Despite international skepticism, the Kremlin welcomed the Chinese position paper for an end to the war against Ukraine that Russia had started. "Any attempts to come up with plans that will help put the conflict on a peaceful path deserve attention," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the Russian news agency Interfax. "We reiterate that at the moment we see no conditions to take this whole story in a peaceful direction."
First, the war goes on. "And we are moving in the direction of achieving all the goals that have been set," said Peskow. With regard to the Chinese paper, he said that the individual points had to be analyzed in detail. In the end, the interests of a wide variety of sides would have to be taken into account for any negotiations. "It's a very long and tense process," emphasized Peskow.
Xi has spoken to Putin several times since the war began, but not to Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy. When asked, the Chinese ministry spokeswoman did not comment directly on a possible meeting between Xi and Zelenskyy. "We are in constant communication with the relevant parties, including Ukraine," she said. The United States had recently warned China several times not to supply Russia with weapons that Moscow could use in the Ukraine war.
