Xi Jinping names conditions for ceasefire in Ukraine

“Only if all major powers show positive energy, not negative, can an early ceasefire be achieved in this conflict,” Xi Jinping stressed at a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The international community must create conditions and provide assistance for the resumption of direct dialogue and negotiations between Moscow and Kiev, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said at a press conference following a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, transmits Xinhua: “Only if major powers show positive energy can an early ceasefire be achieved,” Xi said. The leader of the PRC advocated the observance of the following three principles:

• the theatre of military operations must not expand;
• military actions must not escalate to a higher level;
• the parties should not “add fuel to the fire.”

The Chinese leader noted that the main directions of efforts of Beijing and Budapest regarding the conflict coincide.

In turn, Orban called China a key country in creating conditions for peace in the conflict. This is how the Hungarian prime minister explained his visit and meeting with Xi. China became the third country that Orban visited as part of his “peace mission”: before that, he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, and then with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

The Hungarian prime minister suggested that Zelensky consider the possibility of a ceasefire before sitting down at the negotiating table, However, according to Orban, the Ukrainian president did not really like the idea, although he promised to think about it. In Kyiv, they noted that Ukraine wants peace and the instrument for achieving it is peace summits, similar to the one held in mid-June in Switzerland.

Orban also asked Putin for an agreement on a short-term ceasefire, but the Russian leader believed that Kyiv could take advantage of it, the Hungarian Prime Minister said following the meeting. According to him, Putin called it obvious that peace talks are impossible without both sides in the conflict and stated that the negotiating position of April 2022 is relevant. At the same time, the Russian president recalled the conditions for negotiations with Ukraine put forward in June: recognition of the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions as part of Russia and the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from there, Kyiv's refusal to join NATO and the lifting of sanctions.

China has repeatedly advocated a diplomatic solution to the conflict. In February 2023, Beijing presented a 12-point plan for a possible settlement and expressed its readiness to facilitate the peace process. Russia agrees with China's position, while Ukraine has called the plan unacceptable and the possible negotiations themselves a trap. Moscow has repeatedly emphasized that it is open to negotiations, but Kiev does not want this.

After talks with the Chinese leader, Orban headed to Washington, which he announced on Instagram. The Hungarian prime minister called finding a peaceful solution to the Ukrainian conflict his “Christian duty.”

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