Scholz asks Xi to pressure Putin to end Ukraine war

(Beijing) The German chancellor said in Beijing on Tuesday that he had asked the Chinese president to pressure Moscow to stop its “senseless campaign” in Ukraine, while affirming that the two leaders would support a peace conference planned in Switzerland.

“China’s word has weight in Russia,” said Olaf Scholz after a meeting with Xi Jinping in the Diaoyutai diplomatic complex in Beijing.

He expressed his wish to see Russian troops withdraw from Ukraine and for “this terrible war to stop”.

Beijing says it is neutral in the conflict in Ukraine and has never publicly condemned Moscow for its invasion. China regularly calls for consideration of Russia’s security concerns vis-à-vis NATO.

At the same time, the German chancellor declared in Beijing that he agreed with the Chinese president to support the Conference on Peace in Ukraine, which Switzerland plans to organize on June 15 and 16.

“China and Germany want to consult intensively and positively on promoting the organization of a high-level conference in Switzerland and future international peace conferences,” he stressed.

And Olaf Scholz has insisted a lot on the need to intensify diplomatic efforts to try to find a solution to the war in Ukraine, while Germany until now has mainly focused on military aid to Kyiv.

“I think it is necessary progress that alongside the military support for Ukraine provided by Germany, its friends and allies, the question of diplomacy is currently at the center” of the debates, noted the chancellor .

Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Zelensky reacted on X by judging that China could help “accelerate” peace.

But he warned that the priority must be to “restore full respect for the objectives and principles of the United Nations Charter, including respect for the principles of territorial integrity”. A way of excluding the abandonment of Ukrainian territories for the benefit of Moscow.

“Restoration of peace”

On Ukraine, Xi Jinping called for “not to add fuel to the fire”. “We must create the conditions necessary to restore peace” and “reduce the repercussions on the global economy,” he argued.

China and Russia have been growing closer for more than a decade because of their shared denunciation of what they present as Western hegemony on the international stage.

These two countries have strengthened their economic, military and diplomatic cooperation since the invasion of Ukraine.

Olaf Scholz arrived in China on Sunday, accompanied by a large delegation of ministers and business leaders. This is his second visit to this country since he took office at the end of 2021.

During his three-day trip, which took him to the city-province of Chongqing (southwest), the economic capital Shanghai and finally to Beijing, the German Chancellor practiced a balancing act.

He intends to strengthen Germany’s economic ties with China, its main trading partner, while representing a European Union (EU) which wants to be less economically dependent on the Asian giant.

His visit comes as the European Union accuses China of distorting the European market by flooding it with low-cost products, from electric vehicles to wind turbines to solar panels.

Subsidies

After a meeting with Mr. Scholz, Premier Li Qiang brushed aside criticism of Chinese financial support for renewable energy.

According to him, subsidies to industry are a common practice around the world and in many countries they are much larger than in China.

He also rejected accusations of Chinese production overcapacity, especially in technologies via heavy public subsidies. The American Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, was recently concerned about this.

We should not arbitrarily decide which country has excess capacity, insisted Li Qiang.