China calls for “direct” negotiations between Russia and Ukraine

China asked this Saturday that there be “direct” negotiations between Ukraine and Russia in a telephone conversation between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Secretary of State AmericanAntony Blinken, which took place on the tenth day after the start of the conflict.

This conversation represents the first call between the heads of diplomacy of the two major world powers since Russia began its offensive against Ukraine.

After the start of the Russian intervention, which is facing fierce resistance from the Ukrainian troops, China adopted a diplomatic middle position, refusing to condemn the Russian attack after having offered a month earlier “unlimited” friendship to Ukraine and Russia. Russia.

“We encourage direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine,” Wang told Blinken, according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement.

“We hope that the fighting will stop as soon as possible… and thus avoid a large-scale humanitarian crisis,” added the Chinese minister, who acknowledged that the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will not be an “easy” task.

Blinken told his Chinese counterpart that “the world is watching which countries uphold the basic principles of freedom, self-determination and sovereignty,” according to State Department spokesman Ned Price.

While the United States and many Western countries have announced tough sanctions against Russia, China is still hesitant to regard this crisis as a war.

“Diplomacy cannot be only European or American, here Chinese diplomacy has a role to play,” said the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, in an interview published in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.

In his conversation with Blinken, Wang argued that resolving the conflict was “closely related to the security interests of both sides.”

He also assured that the United States, NATO and the European Union should negotiate with Russia and “take into account the negative impact of NATO’s eastward expansion on Russia’s security space”, one of the main demands of the Russian president. , Vladimir Putin.

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