Dmytro Kuleba has made a surprising decision: for the first time since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister has travelled to China to meet his counterpart, Wang Yi. The talks focused on promoting the possibility of a settlement in Ukraine, similar to Viktor Orbán’s peace mission in early July, during which the Hungarian Prime Minister visited Beijing to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the aforementioned issue.
After more than three hours of talks, Kuleba stated that Ukraine is ready to negotiate with Russia if Moscow ‘acts in good faith’. He added that, according to Ukrainian assessments, currently this is not the case, as reported by Reuters. ‘Kuleba restated that Kyiv is ready to engage the Russian side in the negotiation process at a certain stage, when Russia is ready to negotiate in good faith, but stressed that no such readiness is currently observed on the Russian side,’ his ministry said in a statement.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson told a regular news conference in Beijing that both ministers had emphasised the importance of taking a long-term view on building bilateral ties. The spokesperson also mentioned that China would ‘continue to expand its food imports from Ukraine.’ Mao Ning added that China was concerned about the humanitarian situation in Ukraine and would continue to provide humanitarian assistance.
She also mentioned that both the Russian and Ukrainian sides had ‘to
varying degrees signalled their willingness to negotiate’
in the war. ‘Although the conditions are not yet ripe, we support all efforts conducive to peace and are willing to continue to play a constructive role in bringing about a ceasefire and the resumption of peace talks,’ she added.
In recent weeks, Kyiv has repeatedly indicated its desire to organize an event similar to the peace conference held in Switzerland in early June. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, among others, mentioned this intention after his talks with Viktor Orbán.
Ukraine has stated that it would like the second summit to be hosted by a Global South country and has indicated that Russia should attend. Kyiv has also expressed a wish for China to play a more active role in ending the war.
This statement aligns with one of the points in Viktor Orbán’s ten-point proposal
on the peaceful settlement in Ukraine. The Hungarian Prime Minister wrote to European Council President Charles Michel, suggesting, among other things, that the European Union should initiate a debate on holding high-level political talks with China regarding the modalities for the next peace conference.
As reported by Hungarian Conservative on several occasions, Viktor Orbán’s peace mission has received considerable criticism from Brussels. Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, has decided to break with tradition and convene the informal meeting of EU foreign and defence ministers in Brussels instead of Hungary, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, as a way to ‘punish’ Viktor Orbán.
However, Kuleba’s trip to China and his statements there cast Viktor Orbán’s peace mission in a very different light. As the only EU leader who can sit down with Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Xi Jinping, and who is respected in the Global South, Orbán could play an important role in either organizing a second peace conference or brokering wider peace talks.
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