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Because Beijing maintains close relations with Moscow, China’s participation in such a summit would be important for the peace process in Ukraine. Since Russia’s participation in the conference in Switzerland is very unlikely, the participation of countries that maintain a good relationship with Russia is all the more important. Foreign Minister Cassis has already repeated this several times.
More of a step back than forward
However, the visit to Beijing probably did not come any closer to the goal of getting China to participate. Beijing’s communication points in a different direction.
There were unctuous words for the Swiss delegation. China thinks it’s good that Switzerland has taken the initiative for peace in Ukraine. And Beijing will see how it can support them. Federal Councilor Cassis announced this after his meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
China shows no interest in participating
There is no mention of this in the Chinese report on the meeting. Swiss efforts for peace in Ukraine are not mentioned at all. Not even the general formulation that China supports any peace efforts is repeated. The Chinese Foreign Ministry made this statement in January after Switzerland announced the peace summit for Ukraine.
So China shows no interest in taking part in the peace summit. People mostly stayed away from the preparatory conferences at the security advisor level. This was also the case at the corresponding meeting in Davos three weeks ago.
Other priorities
That’s not surprising. Many China experts and observers agree that Beijing’s priorities do not lie in Ukraine. The focus is on tensions in the South China Sea, Taiwan and of course the US opponent.
Switzerland is trying to change this and hopes that China will soon be willing to invest more diplomatic capital in the peace process. Foreign Minister Cassis officially invited China to the peace summit today. The initiative for this conference came from Ukrainian President Zelensky and is based on his plan for peace. This could also prove to be an obstacle to Beijing’s participation in this summit. Precisely because of the good relations with Moscow.
This is one of the reasons why the chance of Chinese participation in the Swiss peace summit for Ukraine currently seems small. People in Bern will now be eagerly awaiting a response from Beijing to the invitation issued today.