——– President Xi advocates early cease-fire during meeting with Orban in Beijing
BEIJING: President Xi Jinping said on Monday that a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis and an early ceasefire are in the best interest of all parties, and urged the international community to create conditions for direct dialogue and negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
Xi made the remarks during a meeting in Beijing with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who arrived in the Chinese capital on Monday morning. “Peace mission 3.0” is how Orban captioned a picture posted on social media platform X soon after his arrival in Beijing.
Orban’s visit to the Chinese capital comes on the heels of his trips last week to Moscow and Kyiv, where he proposed that Ukraine consider agreeing to an immediate cease-fire with Russia.
During the meeting in Beijing, the two leaders engaged in in-depth discussions on the Ukraine crisis. Orban briefed Xi about his recent visits to Russia and Ukraine. Xi commended him for his efforts to promote a political resolution of the Ukraine crisis and outlined China’s views and propositions on the matter.
Xi said that priority should be given to adhering to the “three principles of no spillover from the battlefield, no escalation of fighting and no adding fuel to the fire by relevant parties”, in order to quickly cool down the situation.
He underlined the need for the international community to provide assistance for direct dialogue and negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. Only when all major powers exert “positive rather than negative influence” can a ceasefire occur, he said.
Xi said that China has been actively facilitating peace talks in its own way, encouraging and supporting all efforts conducive to a peaceful resolution of the crisis. Noting that the basic principles and efforts of China and Hungary are aligned, he said that China is willing to continue its communication with Hungary and relevant parties.
On Wednesday, Xi reiterated China’s position on the Ukraine crisis during his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Astana, Kazakhstan. He said that China is willing to continue making positive efforts to promote a political settlement of the crisis.
Following his meeting with Xi, Orban posted on X that China is a “key power” in creating the conditions for peace in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. “This is why I came to meet with President Xi in Beijing, just two months after his official visit to Budapest,” Orban wrote. Hungary assumed the rotating presidency of the European Union at the start of July.
During his meeting with Orban on Monday, Xi expressed the hope that Hungary would play an active role in promoting the healthy and stable development of China-EU relations and in achieving positive interactions between them. Xi also emphasized that there is no geopolitical wrangling or conflict of fundamental interests between China and the EU. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
