The German foreign minister Analena Burbok describe her visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Moscow as a “missed opportunity” for China, which “failed to live up to its responsibility and role as a permanent member of the Security Council” of the United Nations.

“As if it wasn’t the last year,” said the minister characteristically.

The visit would be an opportunity for China to live up to its responsibility and role as a permanent member of the Security Council.

On the websites of the two governments, however, the fact that in the last year we have experienced an aggressive war in the world is not even mentioned in other words, as it has been done before. It’s as if the whole of the last year hasn’t happened,” Ms Burbock said earlier today on the sidelines of a Green Parliamentary Group meeting in Weimar.

The foreign minister also described as “sad” the fact that in their announcements the governments of China and Russia mention “how excellent” 2022 was for their economic relations.

“It is not only a privilege to have the right to veto, but also a supreme duty for the permanent members of the Security Council to serve world peace,” Ms. Burbock continued, recalling that Beijing’s announcement that it would table a peace proposal on Ukraine had initially created hopes, but in the end “unfortunately only a position paper was filed, in which the attacker and the victim are not named.” In my view, concluded the foreign secretary, “this cannot really contribute to peace”.