On February 18, 2023 local time, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs Wang Yi answered the question on the Ukraine issue after delivering a keynote speech at the 59th Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Germany.
Wang Yi expressed that the Ukraine crisis is not what we want to see. Like all other parties, China is concerned about the possibility of the conflict being escalated and protracted. China is not a party to the Ukraine Crisis, but we have not sat idly by or added fuel to the fire, and we firmly oppose any move to exploit the crisis. Everything China has done is aimed at facilitating peace through dialogue. China will be firmly standing on the side of dialogue and peace.
As a matter of fact, since the second day of the conflict's breakout, President Xi Jinping had initiated to seek a political settlement of the dispute through dialogue. And as we have seen, Russia and Ukraine did hold quite a number of rounds of negotiations and made important progress. Actually the framework for a peace deal had been already put on the table. But regrettably the peace talk stopped and all is back to square one. Nobody knows what’s behind it.
Some people do not want peace talks to succeed or fighting to stop. They don’t care about the life and death of Ukrainians or the harm done to Europe, but have larger strategic calculations in mind.
Wang Yi stressed that this conflict should not go on any more. As President Xi puts it clearly, there can be no winner in conflicts or wars and no easy answers for complicated issues. Confrontation between major countries must be avoided. The MSC is also an important forum for Europe where all parties can reaffirm their positions. We hope European friends will give sober thought to these questions: what kind of efforts are needed to stop the war? What kind of architecture is needed for peace and stability to endure in Europe? What kind of role does Europe need to play to realize its strategic autonomy?
Noting that the one-year anniversary of the Ukraine crisis is days away, Wang Yi said that China will publish a position document on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis. The document will reiterate President Xi Jinping's important propositions, including that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries should be respected, the purposes and principles of the UN Charter should be upheld, the legitimate security concerns of all countries should be taken seriously, and all efforts conducive to a peaceful resolution of the crisis should be supported. It will be reiterated that a nuclear war must never be fought and can never be won. We also call on all efforts to ensure the safety of civil nuclear facilities and stand against attacks on nuclear power plants, and will advocate joint efforts of opposition against the use of biochemical weapons.
The more complex the situation, the greater the need to remain calm and rational. The more protracted the warfare is, the less we can give up our efforts for peace. China is willing to work with all parties to continue the efforts for realizing an early peace.