Preventing escalation and gathering support for a diplomatic resolution is an “urgent” priority, Beijing’s foreign minister has said
Ending the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is an “urgent” task and China is willing to work with Hungary to drum up support for a peaceful resolution to the fighting, Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said.
During a call on Tuesday with his counterpart in Budapest, Peter Szijjarto, Wang said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had held “strategic communication” with Chinese President Xi Jinping on “important issues related to peace” during Orban’s recent trip to Beijing.
Sharing details of the ministers’ conversation, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that Beijing “believes that the most urgent matter” is to promote de-escalation in Ukraine. According to the statement, Wang told Szijjarto that all parties should reach a consensus on “no spillover of the battlefield, no escalation of the war, and no fanning of the flames.”
Wang lauded Hungary’s “constructive role” in mediating for peace, adding that Beijing is ready to cooperate with Budapest to gather “forces supporting peace,” make more rational voices heard, and “push the situation towards a political solution.” Szijjarto also confirmed his country’s willingness to work with China on creating the conditions to resolve the crisis.
Beijing has long urged peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, and issued a 12-point peace plan to end the hostilities on the first anniversary of the conflict in February 2023.
The conversation between Wang and Szijjarto comes after Orban embarked on a “peace mission” to Ukraine, Russia, China, and the US earlier this month, to discuss ways to resolve the conflict. Orban, who has repeatedly criticized the West’s approach to the hostilities, launched the diplomatic tour immediately after Hungary assumed the rotating presidency of the European Council at the beginning of July.
During a trip to Kiev, Orban proposed a “quick ceasefire” to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky. The latter, however, rejected the proposal. Orban then traveled to Moscow to discuss the “shortest way out” of the conflict with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Hungarian leader later visited Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump in the US, who said “there must be peace, and quickly.”
Orban has also held talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In his view, the US, EU, China, and Türkiye could become mediators in the settlement of the Ukraine crisis.
While Orban’s peace initiatives have faced a backlash from some EU members, who insist Hungary does not represent the bloc, the Hungarian prime minister has dismissed the criticism. Orban insists he is “helping Europe” with his efforts to bring the warring parties to the negotiating table.
