In their first reported phone contact since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky talked on Wednesday. Beijing is stepping up its attempts to position itself as a potential mediator in the protracted war.
Zelensky claimed he had "a long and meaningful phone call" with Xi that lasted over an hour. Zelensky has long expressed a desire to talk with Xi. "We talked about a wide variety of current bilateral relations challenges. Particular focus was placed on potential cooperative strategies to build a fair and lasting peace for Ukraine, according to a statement from Zelensky.
Zelensky stated that peace could not be achieved at the price of territorial concessions.
According to a readout, Xi told Zelensky that "mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity is the political basis of China-Ukrainian relations." This statement was cited by China's Foreign Ministry. Xi also reaffirmed Beijing's assertion that "promote peace and talks" is the country's "core position" regarding the turmoil in Ukraine.
China's Foreign Ministry announced Wednesday that it will send an ambassador to Ukraine and other nations to assist in conducting "in-depth communication" with all parties in order to establish a political settlement. The representative, Li Hui, formerly served as China's ambassador to Russia from 2009 until 2019. He is now the Chinese government's Special Representative on Eurasian Affairs.
The phone discussion between Xi and Zelensky comes after Xi visited Russia on a state visit and met with Vladimir Putin in March. At that time, the two leaders issued a broad confirmation of their common positions on a number of subjects, including their shared distrust of the United States.
The much anticipated phone conversation also comes days after China's senior envoy in Paris caused outrage throughout Europe by implying in an interview that former Soviet nations had no legal standing under international law. The remarks were interpreted as a possible reference to Putin's position that Ukraine should become a part of Russia, and they ran the danger of hurting China's ongoing attempts to improve its reputation in Europe, particularly by establishing itself as a potential middleman between Russia and Ukraine.
Beijing has so far refrained from denouncing or demanding that Russia withdraw its soldiers from Ukraine, instead encouraging moderation from "all parties" and charging NATO with inflaming the situation. Despite maintaining its neutrality, it has also kept up its diplomatic and economic ties with Moscow.
It is also clear from Beijing's diplomatic interactions with Moscow and Ukraine how skewed its position is.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February of last year, Xi and Zelensky had not spoken on the phone before this past Wednesday. Comparatively, Xi has talked to Putin five times since the invasion, including in person during the Chinese president's recent visit to Moscow and at a regional conference in Central Asia in September.
Following the phone call between Xi and Zelensky, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated on Wednesday that Moscow had noted China's willingness to facilitate negotiations with Ukraine.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Zakharova stated, "We note the readiness of the Chinese side to make efforts to establish the negotiation process."
She said that conversations are unlikely at this time, though, and chastised Kiev for rejecting Moscow's suggestions.
Concern on the diplomatic front
Prior to Xi's state visit to Russia in March, reports that negotiations to set up a call for their leaders were in progress between China and Ukraine first appeared.
Analysts at the time generally believed that China was attempting to present itself as a potential mediator of the crisis by the reported attempts.
But weeks passed after Xi and Putin's meeting in Moscow before the call finally happened. Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, told reporters earlier this month that Xi had confirmed his desire to talk with Zelensky "when circumstances and time are right" during a trip to Beijing.
More recently, the comments made by Lu Shaye, China's ambassador to France, who claimed in a television interview last week that the former Soviet Union didn't have a "effective status in international law," have sparked diplomatic commotion, particularly in the Baltic states, where Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia have summoned Chinese representatives to request clarification.
Officials from the European Union, France, Ukraine, Moldova, and others all responded by criticising Lu's remarks.
Later, China distanced itself from Lu's remarks, claiming that he was merely expressing his personal views and not those of the government.
The two leaders last communicated in public on January 4, 2022, only weeks before the invasion, when they sent each other congratulations for their countries' 30th anniversaries of diplomatic relations.
Potential broker of peace
On the one-year anniversary of Russia's invasion, China released a proposal for a political resolution to the issue, beginning to step up attempts to portray itself as a potential peacemaker in the conflict.
However, because the imprecise proposal didn't call for Moscow to remove its troops from Ukrainian territory, it was rejected by the West and Ukraine. As Xi visited Moscow but had not yet spoken with Zelensky, China's role as a mediator was also questioned.
According to Rajan Menon, head of the Grand Strategy Programme at the Washington-based think tank Defence Priorities, the timing of the two presidents' call on Wednesday would suggest that Xi feels there is a chance for success.
"Xi Jinping doesn't want to invest political resources in a project that ultimately fails in his face. He pointed to Beijing's involvement in mediating the restoration of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran earlier this year when he said, "(The Chinese side) wants to succeed like they did in the mediation between Tehran and Riyadh. According to Menon, this might imply that Putin told Xi that he was open to speaking with Kyiv in this particular situation.
Menon said that despite this, there is still a huge political gap between the two sides when it comes to what constitutes acceptable terms for peace. Additionally, both sides continue to believe they can outperform the other in combat and during the spring attack.
"Therefore, we shouldn't expect anything to happen (immediately), but what is clear is that the Chinese have now indicated that they are going to take concrete steps in the direction of mediation and that is not insignificant," he said, adding that it was still unclear whether China would modify its own suggested political solution in the process.
