Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed during his phone talks with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky this week that Beijing’s “core position” on the conflict in Ukraine is to “promote peace and talks.”
China’s Foreign Ministry, in turn, announced after the talks that it would send an envoy to Ukraine and other countries to help conduct “in-depth communication” with all parties to achieve a political settlement.
“This person will essentially be engaging in shuttle diplomacy between the parties. Clearly, Russia and the Ukraine are not on speaking terms, but the Chinese envoy will go back and forth and they will hopefully build the conditions for [possible] future negotiations,” Noh told Sputnik.
Touching upon Beijing’s 12-point peace plan on Ukraine, he called it “pretty interesting.”
“I mean, it's essentially China's position. It's not a road map […], but it has some basic principles that come after those of the nonaligned movement, you know, respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty and then, you know, call for peace and cessation of hostilities,” the analyst noted, referring to the document as a “mixed bag.”
Noh argued that the plan can be used as “a platform to start this process of moving towards a political settlement” and that “the timing is right.”
“I think it's pretty clear that Ukraine, […] despite what the neocons want, is not going to be able to sustain this war in any meaningful fashion,” he added in an apparent nod to Russia’s special military operation.
According to the analyst, “there are a variety of environmental factors that create the possibility for some meaningful negotiation” between Moscow and Kiev.
The remarks come a few days after Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on the Xi-Zelensky talks, saying that Moscow notes Beijing's readiness to establish a negotiation process to settle the conflict in Ukraine.
According to the Russian diplomat, Kiev is still rejecting "any sensible initiatives aimed at a political and diplomatic settlement of the Ukrainian crisis," posing ultimatums with "deliberately unrealistic demands."
"The Ukrainian authorities and their Western curators have already demonstrated their ability to wind up peaceful initiatives ... Thus any calls for peace are unlikely to be adequately received by puppets controlled from Washington," Zakharova added.
This followed Beijing unveiling a 12-point document titled "China’s Position on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis," promoting, among other things, respect of the sovereignty of all countries, the cessation of hostilities and the resumption of peace talks between Moscow and Kiev.
The Russian Foreign Ministry responded by saying that Russia values China's sincere desire to contribute to the peaceful settlement of the conflict in Ukraine. The Kremlin has repeatedly emphasized its readiness to negotiate, while the government in Kiev has ruled out any talks as long as Vladimir Putin remains president of Russia.
For more fascinating commentary on the issue, check out our Sputnik radio show Final Countdown.