Russia ready for talks with Ukraine, Putin tells Xi

The Chinese government said Russian President Vladimir Putin told Chinese President Xi Jinping in a phone call on Friday that Moscow was ready to hold high-level talks with Ukraine. Mr. Xi, in the call, widely expressed support for Russia to address Europe’s “legitimate security concerns of all countries” – a point China has emphasized in recent days, referring to Russia’s concerns over NATO. – And did not criticize the Russian invasion. The official Xinhua news agency said in a readout of the call that Mr Putin conveyed that Russia was ready to hold “high-level talks with Ukraine”. Later on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Mr Putin was ready to send a delegation of high-ranking officials to the Belarusian capital, Minsk, to hold talks with Ukrainian officials. Whether there are conditions for those talks, as Russia’s offensive continued unabated on Friday, is unclear. The phone call between Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin, who held a summit meeting in Beijing earlier this month, once again reflected Beijing’s two-pronged approach to the Ukraine crisis: calling for dialogue and peaceful dialogue. , at the same time refraining from publicly criticizing the actions of its close ally Russia. China’s position on the crisis has been broadly similar to that of India, which has also called for a diplomatic resolution, but has not criticized Russia’s aggression. China has also been explicitly critical of NATO and has blamed it for the tension. In the call, Mr. Xi said it is “essential to abandon the Cold War mentality” and “respect the legitimate security concerns of all countries and build a balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism through dialogue.” “China supports Russia and Ukraine to resolve the issue through dialogue,” he said. The Chinese Foreign Ministry made a similar point on Friday, saying that China “always believes that the Ukraine issue has a complex historical background and context” and that “the legitimate security concerns of all parties should be respected”. “In the future, China will continue its efforts to promote a political solution to the Ukraine issue,” spokesman Wang Wenbin said. “China’s approach is in stark contrast to the US approach which aims to create and take advantage of the crisis,” he said. from the crisis.”