Mr. Fu Tong, Ambassador of China to the EU. Getty Images
China’s ambassador to the EU, Fu Tong, has expressed concern about the West’s call to help Ukraine achieve “a complete victory” in the war with Russia.
Fu stressed that, for China, Beijing has a multifaceted “traditional friendship” with Moscow and that the Russia-Ukraine conflict is simply a matter of discussion “of course inevitable.” .
“Frankly, we are quite concerned about the possibility of escalation of this conflict,” said Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at an event organized by the Center for European Policy in Brussels on February 8.
“And we don’t believe that just supplying weapons will really solve the problem. We are quite concerned about claims of total victory on the battlefield. We believe that the most appropriate place to resolve the conflict is at the negotiating table,” he added.
The statements of China’s ambassador to the EU came the same day that Mr Zelensky made a surprise visit to London – his first trip to Western Europe since Russia launched a full-scale military campaign almost a year. before entering Ukraine. President Zelensky also visited Brussels on Thursday in a bid to increase diplomacy to get more weapons and aid for Ukraine.
Politico reported that Zelensky’s aides said that President Xi Jinping had never picked up the phone when the Ukrainian president contacted him, while the Chinese leader has regularly met or talked with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the past year. .
The idea of a “complete victory” for Ukraine was most strongly supported by the Baltic states and Eastern Europe. French President Emmanuel Macron and British leaders also repeatedly declared their support for a “complete victory” for Ukraine.
However, following Xi’s foreign policy, China’s ambassador to the EU Fu Tong said that “the security concerns of both sides — Ukraine as well as Russia — should be taken care of.