Eyes on Beijing in the hope it can promote peace process

The attention the world is paying to the top Ukrainian diplomat's ongoing visit to China from Tuesday to Friday shows the great hopes that are being pinned on Beijing being able to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Some in the West have gone to great lengths to smear China as an "enabler" of Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine, implying that only those joining the West's sanctions on Russia are on the right side. But as China has repeatedly said it is friend of both Russia and Ukraine and it holds a neutral stance.

China and Ukraine established their comprehensive strategic partnership as early as 2011, and Ukraine was one of the first batch of countries to join the Belt and Road Initiative.

China has been Ukraine's largest trading partner for years and the largest market of Ukraine's agricultural produce, and there exists great potential and space to expand bilateral cooperation. As Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said when meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, on Wednesday, it is "friendship" and "cooperation" that characterize China-Ukraine relations.

Kuleba is the first high-ranking Ukrainian official to visit China since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in February 2022, and deepening the two countries' cooperation is also on the agenda for his trip.

That Beijing has stable and healthy ties with Russia and Ukraine should be regarded as a positive asset for finding a political settlement to the conflict between the two sides. Only those that want to prolong the crisis or take advantage of it to meet their own narrow ends will try to splash dirty water on China's pro-peace efforts.

As Kuleba said, the Ukrainian side highly appreciates China's positive and constructive role in promoting peace and maintaining international order.

That the Ukrainian foreign minister said in Guangzhou that Ukraine is willing and ready to engage in dialogue and negotiation with Russia — as long as the negotiations are rational and meaningful, and aimed at achieving a just and lasting peace — should be taken as a positive sign for the rest of his visit to China, during which Kyiv and Beijing can explore ways to remove the obstacles that have been hindering the peace process.

China believes that the resolution of all disputes must always be achieved through political means. Recently, both Ukraine and Russia have signaled to varying degrees their willingness to negotiate. Although the conditions and timing may not yet be ripe, Beijing will support all efforts that contribute to peace and is willing to continue to play a constructive role in promoting a ceasefire and meaningful peace talks.