Are there dark clouds on the horizon now? The friendship between Russia and China seems to have suffered.
Jeddah – What about the relationship between President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin? Last shines China’s ‘rock-solid’ friendship with Russia cracks to have gotten. The end of the grain agreement and the coup by the Wagner group under Prigozhin were constant drops on the rock of friendship between the two states. The fact that the Chinese representation in the Ukrainian port city was affected during the Russian attacks on Odessa was certainly not a positive signal from Russia.
Now China appears to be taking a step that might anger Moscow for a change. Because the country has decided to send a delegation to the Ukraine peace conference in Saudi Arabia. This only became public shortly before the start of the summit. For a long time it was unclear how Beijing would decide, because: Russia is not participating there.
China-Russia friendship shaken? Chinese delegation at Ukraine peace conference
A two-day peace conference is taking place in Saudi Arabia on August 5th and 6th. To this end, the Kingdom has invited Ukraine, its western allies, as well as developing and emerging countries to Jeddah. Representatives from Ukraine, the USA, the EU, Great Britain as well as Chile, Indonesia, Egypt and Turkey are expected, according to diplomatic circles in Riyadh. According to the news agency, Germany is represented by Jens Plötner, foreign policy advisor to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and Tjorven Bellmann, political director at the Federal Foreign Office AFP from government circles.
The aim of the meeting is the “consolidation of various peace plans”, for example from China, Africa and Brazil, with the ten-point plan drawn up by Ukraine, it said in the run-up to the conference from Berlin. “China stands ready to work with the international community to continue playing a constructive role in promoting a political solution to the crisis in Ukraine,” said Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Chinese ministry, according to the news agency Reuters.
China’s Participation in Ukraine Peace Summit: “Putin Most Likely Concerned”
What is particularly explosive about the participation in the peace summit: China was also invited to an earlier round of talks in Copenhagen at the end of June, but did not take part. “Putin is very likely concerned” about China’s participation in Ukraine peace talks in Saudi Arabia, former US Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor said in Interview with the broadcaster NBC News. The Ukrainians would be there presenting their plan and many important powers would be listening, he explained. If the summit gets only “slight agreement” with Zelenskyy’s peace plan, which includes requiring Russia to leave Ukraine, it could send a big signal, especially if China and Saudi Arabia agree. (Sophia Lother)