West News Wire: French President Emmanuel Macron urged Beijing to “help us pressure Russia” to stop the conflict in Ukraine on Saturday, announcing that he would travel to China in early April.
Speaking a day after China unveiled its plan to end the crisis in Ukraine and urged for immediate peace negotiations, Macron said that only if “Russian aggression was ceased, forces were removed, and territorial sovereignty of Ukraine and its people was recognized” could there be peace.
The French leader urged Beijing to “not supply any armaments to Russia” and praised China for its involvement in peace efforts.
Additionally, he requested Beijing’s assistance to “apply pressure on Russia to ensure that it never employs chemical or nuclear weapons and that it ceases this aggression prior to negotiations”.
China’s 12-point paper calling for a “political settlement” of the crisis follows accusations from the West that China is considering arming Russia, a claim Beijing has dismissed as false.
Timed to coincide with the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the paper urges all parties to “support Russia and Ukraine in working in the same direction and resuming direct dialogue as quickly as possible”.
It also makes clear its opposition to not only the use of nuclear weapons, but the threat of deploying them, after Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to use Moscow’s atomic arsenal in the conflict.
