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‘Zelensky Informed Xi Ahead Of Offensive’

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‘Zelensky Informed Xi Ahead Of Offensive’

What is behind the conversation between the President of Ukraine and the head of China.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held a conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time since the start of a full-scale Russian invasion on Wednesday, April 26.

The website Charter97.org asked Slovak political scientist, President of the Institute for Public Affairs (IVO) (Bratislava) Grigorij Mesežnikov to share his vision of what this conversation could mean.

— According to what I learned from the media yesterday, I don’t know how reliable this information is, the call was at Zelensky’s initiative. If this is actually the case, then this in a certain way shows that Ukraine has taken a clear step towards Beijing. More than a year has passed since the start of the full-scale invasion, Xi Jinping even visited Moscow during this time, but did not communicate with Ukraine. In fact, China has politically supported Russia, there is information that it is even helping Moscow to circumvent sanctions.

In this situation, it was probably important for Zelensky to convey to China that Ukraine adheres to all the positions that it has so far held, that is, full sovereignty, territorial integrity and the withdrawal of Russian troops. Apparently, before the offensive, he wanted to inform the Chinese leader that Ukraine seriously intends to deal with the issue of the complete liberation of its territories.

I think it was useful for China to know that Ukraine does not consider the current status quo possible for some kind of freeze. But we do not have complete information about the content of the conversation between Xi and Zelensky. As far as I know from the media, they discussed, among other things, a grain deal. It seems that Beijing has shown understanding of Kyiv's position on this issue. But as far as reports from China itself are concerned, it is difficult to judge whether its position has changed. I think that it continues to unequivocally stand on the side of Russia. It follows that Beijing cannot be any mediator, given its support for the Russian Federation at the political and diplomatic level.

— China's special representative in Ukraine will be the ex-ambassador to the Russian Federation. What does it testify to?

— This is also a certain signal. In itself, this does not mean that China will put pressure on Ukraine through its former ambassador to Russia. China usually tries to systematize everything, which is probably why they chose a person who is well acquainted with Russia. But I think that this is not enough to represent the country in Ukraine. It would be nice if the ambassador was a person who knows Ukraine, the Ukrainian nation, culture and so on. Surely there are such specialists in China. But what can be expected from a dictatorial regime, a totalitarian power, which, in principle, is similar in its main characteristics to the Russian regime?

— Xi mentioned “nuclear war” again in the conversation. Why is China so reverent about the topic of nuclear weapons?

— In this regard, China is not interested in the proliferation of nuclear weapons, because uncontrolled processes can begin in the neighborhood. Take the same North Korea, which is a pain in the neck for China, although it is thanks to China that North Korea generally survives as a state. But the fact that there are nuclear weapons there is, of course, unpleasant for Beijing. Plus, South Korea has well-developed nuclear technology. Taiwan, which China claims, is also a country that develops nuclear technology. In this regard, China's position remains very cautious.

The use of nuclear weapons by Russia would undermine the authority of China itself. There is a current narrative (and I agree with it) that Russia falls under the vassalage of China on many issues. Russia itself does not particularly hide this. In propaganda shows, they are Russian figures constantly saying: “Here, we are allies with China, we make up the majority of the world's population, together with them.” Of course, if a vassal or a country that is in a state of vassal dependence on China in many areas suddenly uses nuclear weapons, then for the overlord, the country that dominates the relationship, this will not be a good signal about the ability of this power to keep its vassal on a leash.

— Can China prevent the deployment of nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus?

— I'm not at all sure that China has such an ambition. Russia must have somehow informed China about this. Although we know that during Xi Jinping's visit, a memorandum was signed in which the parties reaffirmed the principle of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, there even was a paragraph about non-deployment, if I'm not mistaken. In any case, I do not see any signals that would indicate that China would somehow prevent Russia from doing this.

It is clear that from the point of view of general security, it would be good if China tamed its vassal a little. But Putin used an argument that this is an internal matter of the “union state”, as he constantly does, that Russia and Belarus have a common security and defense policy. So China, probably, will not interfere directly in this process.

Plus, you must have recorded the statements of the Chinese Ambassador to France, which concerned in general all post-Soviet states. And in the case of Belarus, China's support for this “union state” chimera, which Putin is constantly developing, is obvious, it essentially agrees with this and supports this approach.

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