Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after the peace summit in Switzerland A new determination Eighty countries have agreed that Ukraine’s “territorial integrity” would be the basis of any peace deal to end the war with Russia.
However, the final statement and the summit as a whole were marred by a lack of support from Southern countries, especially China, which did not send a representative to the summit. shopping Unique peace initiatives for developing countries.
Finding perspective: President Zelenskyy told reporters that representatives of 101 countries and international organisations, as well as more than 50 heads of state and government, mostly from Europe, attended the summit.
President of Ukraine Said Her colleague Zoryana Stepanenko said she was pleased with the outcome of the summit, but several countries that attended, including Brazil, India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates, did not sign the final statement.
China did not attend the summit, arguing that Russia had not been invited and that any peace talks should involve both Kiev and Moscow, but behind the scenes Beijing was also pushing for a counter-strategy ahead of the Swiss-hosted summit.
China’s move prompted a rare public criticism from President Zelensky. Said On June 2, a statement was made in Singapore claiming that Russia and China were trying to disrupt the summit.
Good news for Zelensky: US President Joe Biden did not attend the summit, but Vice President Kamala Harris did instead. Biden’s presence would have given the summit more weight, but Signed Prior to the meeting in Switzerland, at the G7 summit, a 10-year bilateral security agreement between Ukraine and the United States was signed.
Bad news for Zelensky: The summit ended with overwhelming Western support for Ukraine, Global inequality As for war.
Chinese authorities Shopping Alternative Peace Plan For several months now, he has been said to be pro-Russia. Reuters reports “Beijing has told developing countries at the conference [in Switzerland] It will prolong the war.”
As explained here Short videoAll this makes it very difficult for China to take a neutral stance on the war.
Why is this important: China is pursuing a broader strategy to position itself as a leader in the global south in opposition to the U.S.-led West, and diplomacy over the Ukraine war is the latest arena.
China is seeking to bring developing countries on board with a six-point peace plan it jointly released with Brazil in May, which calls for an international peace conference “at an appropriate time approved by both Russia and Ukraine, with equal participation by all parties and fair discussion of all peace proposals.”
The Kremlin has supported the idea of China mediating peace, and China’s Foreign Ministry said more than 100 countries had backed the proposal.
But the bigger question is whether Beijing genuinely wants to broker peace or is simply trying to block a Western-backed proposal to help its partner, Russia.
Alexander Gabuev of the Carnegie Russia and Eurasia Center He wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine Ahead of the summit:
“So China will continue to persist in its stubborn stance — indirectly supporting Russia, sabotaging Kyiv-led diplomatic efforts, and pretending to be engaged in diplomacy rather than seriously working with other parties to find a solution.”
Three Tales from Eurasia
- How to deal with China’s support for Russia?
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said China Should face the consequences If Russia does not change its stance, it will be seen as supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine.
detail: “Beijing can’t have it both ways. At some point, allies have to impose costs unless China changes course. There have to be consequences for that,” Stoltenberg said in Washington on June 17.
The NATO secretary-general’s comments join a growing number of Western officials who have in recent months more openly criticized China’s support for Russia, which supplied about 90 percent of high-value dual-use products to Russia last year.
But how to impose those consequences? It’s Not That Simple.
At the recent G7 summit in Italy, the group of wealthy democracies discussed going after smaller Chinese banks.
Big Chinese banks, worried about becoming targets of U.S. secondary sanctions, have begun to limit cross-border transactions with Russia and Russian companies. Instead, smaller banks, which are harder to track and have less exposure to the international financial system, have become the main conduit for transactions.
Targeting Chinese financial institutions generally carries contagion risks because of their connections to the broader global financial system, but targeting smaller banks is difficult because they are deliberately insulated from Western institutions that give them the economic leverage they seek to exert on Brussels and Washington.
“This is what I call the ‘burner bank’ strategy,” Tom Keatinge, director of the Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies at the Royal Institute for Security Studies, told me. “If the US or other G7 countries were to impose sanctions on these banks, the knock-on effects would likely be very limited. The impact on the banks would be similarly localised, as they have no need for access to the international banking system.”
- Another export model
Is China actively trying to export its authoritarian model abroad? New batch Previously unexamined Chinese government documents seem to indicate as much.
What it means: Niva Yau, adjunct fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, said: Met A trove of 1,691 files from China’s Ministry of Commerce recorded online in 2021 and 2022.
The dataset describes 795 government programs of training and exchanges with foreign government officials that the documents say are aimed at promoting the ideas and practices of China’s economic and political model to countries in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia that make up the so-called Global South.
While Chinese officials have repeatedly insisted that Beijing is not exporting its authoritarian system of governance, the collection of government documents adds to new evidence that China is trying to sell the benefits of its model to officials in the Global South while also developing new initiatives and practical programs to speed up its adoption.
“This is real evidence of a growing belief among experts,” Yau told me. “We now have proof, in China’s own words, from internal planning documents, of what China is up to.”
- China aims to reform Central Asia trade
After years of discussion and delays, the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, a potentially transformative trade between Central Asian countries, has taken a major step forward as Kyrgyzstan announced it would accept a large loan from China to build the railway, reports RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz News Agency. Reports.
Things you need to know: Kyrgyzstan Railways CEO Azamat Sakiev told the country’s parliament on June 19 that the total cost of building the Kyrgyz section of the railway is estimated at $4.7 billion.
Sakiev said Chinese financing would cover 51 percent of the project, while Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan would each foot the bill for 24.5 percent. Beijing will provide financing to the Joint Design Company, a new holding company that will jointly run the railway construction among the three countries.
Sakiev added in his public remarks that details about the terms of the loan and the interest rate have yet to be finalized.
Once completed, the railway could become a major new hub for overland trade between Europe and China, as well as a vital artery for Central Asia, one of the world’s most under-resourced regions.
Beyond the supercontinent
Climate pressure: Kazakhstan’s Lake Balkhash is under increasing stress due to climate change, rising water demands from China upstream, and plans for a nearby nuclear power plant. report.
Tougher Brussels: Former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi Said The European Union needs to become more “passive” to protect its economic interests from threats from countries with an “unfair advantage” such as China.
A “More Aggressive” Cyberspace: In a statement to a US congressional committee, Brad Smith, vice chairman and president of US tech giant Microsoft, warned that the close cooperation between Russia, China, North Korea and Iran on the geopolitical stage could be replicated in cyberspace, my colleague Todd Prince reported. Reports.
Unusual visit: Senior EU diplomats have visited Tibetan schools, religious sites and prisons as part of dialogue with China on human rights issues, the Irish Times reported. Reports.
Points to note
The EU is on the brink of a trade war with China, after the EU attacked Beijing with new tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs), and China announced it would launch an anti-dumping investigation into EU pork and by-products.
The move is expected to take particular aim at France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands, with EU officials believing these countries have been singled out for pushing for EV tariffs, Politico reports. report.
From RFE/RL
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