Pais: Spanish premier wants to convince Chinese leader to include Zelensky’s support in peace plan
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez intends to convince Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to China that any plan for the peaceful settlement of the situation in Ukraine must take into account Vladimir Zelensky’s support, the Pais newspaper reported.
Sanchez arrived in China on Thursday on an official visit for talks with Xi Jinping.
“Pedro Sanchez seems convinced that the meeting he will have this Friday with Xi Jinping is the perfect opportunity to try to pull him (the Chinese leader – ed.) towards a position closer to the European one, and above all to convince him of the key element – that any peace plan that is promoted for Ukraine must include explicit support for Zelensky and Ukrainians, otherwise it will be useless,” the paper said.
According to Pais, Madrid considers Xi Jinping’s position crucial in finding a solution to the conflict in Ukraine. The publication also quoted sources in the Spanish government as saying that Beijing’s previously submitted plan for resolving the situation in Ukraine had “interesting elements” which coincided with Zelensky’s proposals.
“We have many expectations, we think this meeting with Xi Jinping is very important,” Sanchez said on the plane en route to China.
As Pais notes, Sanchez intends to demonstrate Europe’s vision on the conflict in Ukraine, as well as the “fresh” vision of Kiev that he received during his recent visit to the Ukrainian capital and meeting with Zelensky. He also wants to learn in detail about Beijing’s plans on this issue, the newspaper added.
According to the newspaper, the Spanish premier also hopes to receive assurances from Xi Jinping that Beijing has no intention of transferring weapons to Russia, as well as confirmation that the Chinese leader continues to strongly reject the use of nuclear weapons in the conflict in Ukraine.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin has responded to claims of alleged plans to supply arms to Russia by saying that the US, not China, has been continuously supplying arms to the Ukrainian conflict and that Washington should stop spreading misinformation and shifting responsibility to others. At the same time, Wang Yi, head of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, accused the West of double standards in the issue of China’s arms supplies to Russia, as the West itself is arming Ukraine.
Russian presidential press secretary Dmitriy Peskov, when asked about the alleged plans of Chinese arms assistance to Russia, said that Beijing strongly denied this and had nothing to add to it.
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