During a virtual call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, Xi said the situation in Ukraine was “alarming” and China was “deeply saddened by the resumption of war on the European continent,” China’s foreign ministry said in a statement. Ministry.
“China will maintain communication and coordination with France, Germany and the EU and, in light of the needs of the parties involved, actively work together with the international community,” the statement said, adding that all efforts “contributing to the peaceful resolution of the crisis must be supported.”
Scholz and Macron said their two countries are ready to strengthen communication and coordination with Beijing to advance peace talks, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
China has not directly condemned the Russian attack or imposed sanctions on Moscow, but it has also been slow to help Russia after its economy has been hit by sanctions from around the world, with experts saying Beijing’s options are limited. Analysts say Chinese banks and companies also fear secondary sanctions if they do business with their Russian counterparts.
Beijing has consistently refused to call the war in Ukraine a Russian invasion, and Chinese officials regularly point to NATO’s eastward expansion as the root cause of the conflict, echoing a key Russian point of view.
Xi stressed the need to support the peace talks and urged both sides to “continue negotiations and achieve peaceful outcomes,” the statement said on Tuesday.
China again called on the parties to exercise “maximum restraint” to prevent a large-scale humanitarian crisis and said it was ready to provide Ukraine with additional supplies of humanitarian aid. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said last week that the Chinese were “ready to seek a peaceful solution” in diplomatic negotiations to end the war.
Xi once again denounced Western sanctions during a phone call on Tuesday, warning that they would “weaken the global economy, which has already been devastated by the pandemic.”
“It’s not in anyone’s interest. We need to actively uphold the concept of common, comprehensive, shared and sustainable security,” Xi said in a statement.