Chinese President Xi Jinping is on his way to Moscow, on a “voyage of friendship”, “cooperation” and “peace”, weeks after Beijing unveiled a 12-point position paper calling for a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war and days after it mediated a surprise rapprochement between longtime Middle East foes, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Xi’s three-day visit, which begins on Monday, will feature one-on-one talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a man the Chinese leader has described as his “best friend” and who is now wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes accusations.
The summit in Moscow will be the 40th meeting between the two men.
The visit by Xi – who was recently reappointed as China’s leader for an unprecedented third term and who is seeking a greater role for Beijing on the world stage – has raised hopes in some quarters of a breakthrough in ending the war in Ukraine. The conflict, now in its second year, has claimed tens of thousands of lives, forced millions from their homes, and caused widespread economic pain, with inflation soaring across the globe and supplies of grain, fertiliser and energy in short supply.
The hopes have been kindled not only by Beijing’s mediation in the Saudi-Iran détente and its proposal for a truce and dialogue between Moscow and Kyiv but also by media reports that Xi intends to follow on his summit with Putin with a virtual meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
If it takes place, the conversation between Xi and Zelenskyy will be their first since Russian tanks rolled across Ukraine’s border in February of last year.
Global peacemaker?
Despite the surge in China’s global diplomacy, most observers say Xi’s state visit is more about cementing the “no limits” partnership that he announced with Putin last year than about brokering peace in Ukraine. That’s because, for starters, neither of the warring parties appears ready or willing to end the fighting.
“Unless and until Russia and Ukraine have exhausted their will to continue fighting and are looking for off-ramps for this conflict, it is not possible to end it,” said Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. “And I don’t think that China wants to get in the middle of it.”
China’s 12-point paper on Ukraine, Glaser said, was a summary of its positions and not a “peace plan”,…