The European Commission asks Beijing not to interfere in the sanctions imposed on Moscow, but the Asian giant avoids giving guarantees
“Beijing’s equidistance in the war in Ukraine is no longer valid,” said the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, at the end of the EU-China summit on Friday. The main objective of this virtual meeting was to appeal to the “responsibility” of the Asian giant to use its influence over Russia and promote peace negotiations. Her response: “We’ll do it our way.”
While the EU and forty other countries have imposed sanctions on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine, China has put itself in profile so as not to harm its relations with Moscow. He has not been the only one. Countries like India, South Africa, Pakistan or Brazil have also refused to take part in the conflict.
This Friday, the Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, was against a hypothetical expulsion of Russia from the G-20 for the invasion of Ukraine, as suggested by several governments. He defended that this decision would mean “politicizing” the group. Premier Li Keqiang and President Xi Jinping also kept their balance in their meeting with community leaders and avoided giving assurances that they would not align themselves with Russia. They defended the “independence” of the country to make its own decisions, cooling expectations that Beijing will harden its position with the Kremlin.
The relationship between the EU and China is not going through its best moment, after Beijing has imposed sanctions on Lithuania and several senior officials in the European Parliament in recent months. In this context, the community leaders attended the event without much hope of extracting a commitment from the Asian giant. “We have stated our position and concerns and they have done the same,” the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, limited himself to pointing out at the press conference after the meeting.
The main European concern is that China tries to help Russia economically or militarily. “If they don’t support sanctions, we ask them to at least not interfere. Supporting Moscow would seriously damage China’s reputation,” Von der Leyen said. To which Michel added that “no European citizen would understand support for Russia, which would strengthen her capabilities to continue her war.” This could also cause a disbandment of Western companies established in China, as has already happened in Russia.
European leaders hope that the important trade relationship with the EU will dissuade China from taking any such action – Europe is Beijing’s biggest trading ally, with trade volumes reaching €1.9 trillion in 2021.
More than a month after the conflict, China continues to avoid accepting that there is open war in Ukraine – it only refers to the conflict as a “crisis”. Still, the EU has no doubt that Beijing is also seeking peace. In a war situation, markets and supply chains suffer, creating a climate of instability that harms all economies on the planet.
Michel and Von der Leyen discussed in depth the economic effects of the war with the Chinese prime minister, in a meeting that lasted almost two hours. The call with Xi Jinping, on the other hand, only lasted fifty minutes. In it, the European leaders came to urge the Chinese leader to maintain contacts with the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski.
Topics
Volodimir Zelensky, European Union (EU), Brazil, Brussels, China, Lithuania, Moscow, Pakistan, Pekin, Ukraine, War in Ukraine
#China #mediates #Russia #promote #peace #Ukraine