Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused China of backing Russia in pressuring countries not to attend an upcoming peace summit being promoted by Kiev.
“Russia is trying to sabotage the peace summit,” Zelenskiy said on Sunday after speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue Defense Conference in Singapore, calling Beijing a “tool” of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The summit will be held in Switzerland in mid-June and President Zelenskyy said more than 100 countries and international organizations would attend, focusing on nuclear and food security, the release of prisoners and the return of Ukrainian children currently in Russia.
“Russia is doing everything possible to disrupt the peace summit, using China’s influence in the region and also using Chinese diplomats,” Zelenskiy said during a speech aimed at bolstering attendance by Asian countries in Switzerland.
Newsweek China’s Foreign Ministry was contacted by email seeking comment.
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China says it does not support either side in the ongoing war in Ukraine but maintains close ties with key ally Russia. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning told reporters over the weekend that Beijing was unlikely to attend the summit because Moscow had not been invited to take part.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine had invited China to the summit. “It is a pity that China is not taking advantage of its position as one of the countries that is in active dialogue with President Putin,” Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said. Financial Times She reportedly said so.
“China has always insisted that an international peace conference must meet three key elements: recognition from both Russia and Ukraine, equal participation of all parties, and fair discussion of all peace proposals,” Mao added.
The BBC reports that Moscow was not officially invited because the Kremlin had informed Switzerland that it would not be attending.
“If China supports Russia, the war will be prolonged,” the Ukrainian leader said.
China says it does not provide weapons to either side in the conflict and maintains strict controls over the export of goods that could be diverted for military purposes.
“We are not doing anything to add fuel to the fire,” Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun said.
“China is not supplying weapons to Russia, it is providing Russia with critical materials that are enabling it to accelerate its own production of tanks, missiles and artillery shells,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters at a news conference in the Czech capital, Prague, on Friday.
He added that around 70 percent of the machine tools Russia imports are made in China, as are around 90 percent of microelectronics.
“China is supporting Russia’s war economy,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told media on Friday. “Without China’s support, Russia would not have been able to wage its war of aggression in Ukraine.”
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom, seeking common ground and finding connections.
