EU leaders warn China that it must talk to Ukraine if it wants to mediate for peace

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BRUSSELS, March 23 () –

The leaders of the European Union have indicated this Thursday that if China wants to play the role of mediator in Ukraine, it must start by maintaining contacts with Kiev to establish the elements of future peace talks, insisting that the territorial integrity of the country must be respected and for Russian troops to leave their territory.

The possible peace talks in Ukraine have marked the arrival of the heads of state and government at the summit this Thursday and Friday in Brussels. In this sense, the Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, has pointed out that “every war” ends in a peace process, but the question now is to consider the deadlines and terms for the end of the war. “There is clearly an aggressor and a victim. Russia must return to its borders and agree to reparations,” she said.

For his part, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, stressed that any “stable and lasting” peace solution must be based on the conditions established by Kiev, something that will be transferred to the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, on his trip on the 30th and March 31 to Beijing.

“It is important to know first-hand his position on peace in Ukraine and to convey to him that it will be the Ukrainians who establish the conditions for the start of that peace, when it arrives,” Sánchez said in statements before the summit.

Along the same lines, his Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte, has assured that he expects a call soon between the Chinese president and the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski. “I think it’s crucial because China has a peace proposal with elements that may be helpful and others that may not,” he said.

“The devil is in the details,” he admitted, insisting that if it wants to mediate for peace, Beijing must first contact Kiev. “It is up to Zelenski and his team to commit to the proposals that are on the table, but first that communication must be established,” Rutte said.

In the opinion of the Portuguese Prime Minister, Antonio Costa, Europe must play a geostrategic role with regions such as Africa and Latin America in favor of peace and a more balanced world. “We don’t want to live in a world where after decades of bipolarity between the United States and the former Soviet Union, we now have a world fragmenting between the United States and China,” he said.

Faced with the growing relationship between Moscow and Beijing, Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins has called for Europe to set “its own position” in the bilateral relationship with China, insisting on the need for a “combined” approach and to remain ” united” with respect to the Asian giant.