Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, speaking on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, said that “the door for dialogue in Ukraine is open and all sides should strive to reach a comprehensive and lasting peace agreement and eliminate the root causes of the conflict”, and called on Europe to be more active in peace efforts, Interfax-Ukraine reports.
“Regarding the “Ukrainian crisis” (Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine – If-U), the doors for dialogue have finally opened. All parties concerned should seize the opportunity to achieve a comprehensive, lasting and binding peace treaty, address the root causes of the conflict and ensure lasting peace and stability in Europe,” he said.
According to the Chinese foreign minister, Europe should not watch from the sidelines.
“Since the conflict has erupted here in Europe, Europe has every right to participate in the negotiations at an appropriate time. Europe should not be on the menu but should be at the negotiating table,” he said.
Now we see that Europe has found the courage to negotiate with Russia. This is good and we support it,” Wang Yi emphasised.
At the same time, in his opinion, it is not necessary to conduct dialogue for the sake of dialogue itself, and Europe should offer new ideas and new plans to solve this problem.
” And in this process, we need to contribute to a more balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture for Europe. By doing so, we address the root causes of the crisis and can prevent its recurrence. And for its part, China will fully support the peace process in order to achieve sustainable and lasting peace,” the Foreign Minister summarised.
He also clarified that China is not a party directly involved in the conflict, has no right to make a final decision, but only promotes peace talks.
Regarding China-EU relations, Wang Yi expressed his belief that they should be partners, not systemic rivals or strategic competitors.
“But there are differences and differences between our two sides, such as our social systems, our values and our development model, but this is because we have different history and culture, and based on that, our peoples have different choices on the way of development. But that does not mean that we should become rivals or competitors,” the minister said.
He declared that it is more important for China and the EU to practice multilateralism, protect the authority of the UN, say no to unilateral practices, uphold free trade and oppose block confrontation.