By Athena Papakosta

For the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Mr China’s Xi Jinping talks by phone with the Ukrainian presidentVolodymyr Zelensky.

Since the start of the war, Beijing has repeatedly avoided involvement by trying to maintain a neutral stance, in contrast to the West. However, he never hid his close ties to Moscow.

The Chinese president, during his visit to the Russian capital last March, had called his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, a “dear friend” and presented him with a 12-point plan to reach a peace agreement, which Kiev rejected.

The Xi-Zelensky phone call on Wednesday gives rise to optimism and was not such a big surprise. We had heard the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who had accompanied the French president Emmanuel Macron on his visit to China, said that the Chinese president had appeared positive to talk to the president of Ukraine “when the conditions and the moment would be appropriate”.

For his part, Volodymyr Zelensky had appealed to the Chinese president many times, recognizing, as reported by the British BBC, China’s power on the world chessboard and having in the back of his mind, possibly, that Beijing was his most important trading partner. partner before the Russian invasion of the country.

The telephone conversation between the two leaders lasted an hour. During it, Xi Jinping told Zelensky that China would send a special envoy to Ukraine and other countries to hold talks with a view to reaching a political agreement. In the announcement issued by Beijing, no mention is made of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, while it is not clear whether the countries expected to be visited by this special envoy of China will include Russia.

In the same announcement, Beijing also points to Washington – which has so far provided the most assistance to Kiev – and quoting Xi Jinping himself, underlines that China is “a responsible, big country” and “we do not wish to either let’s not even add fuel to the fire, let alone try to make some profit.”

The White House, for its part, welcomed the phone call but noted that it is too early to draw conclusions about whether this communication will ultimately contribute to a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelensky’s basic condition is, after all, the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territories, and so far Moscow does not appear to be willing to do so. At the same time, analysts and experts are skeptical that China will finally manage to help promote peace talks between the two sides since Xi Jinping is friends with Vladimir Putin, trade between Beijing and Moscow has soared and the Chinese president has not has condemned, even today, the invasion of Ukraine.

Regarding Moscow’s reaction, the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Maria Zakharova, emphasized that the main problem is the “unrealistic demands” of Ukraine.

China is currently seeking to maintain a stronger role in global diplomacy as part of its overall effort to come back stronger after the coronavirus pandemic as a political and economic world leader by building a framework that will serve its own interests.

This is essentially a shift in Chinese policy as Beijing has consistently for decades chosen not to get involved in other states’ controversies, conflicts and problems, but to focus its attention on its own and specifically on the course of its economy.

Already last March he managed to marry Iran and Saudi Arabia, and these two countries that are perennial rivals in the Middle East re-established diplomatic relations. At the same time, it claims a mediating role between Israelis and Palestinians, while if it succeeds in laying the foundations for a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, then Beijing will be able to increase its influence in Eastern Europe.

But the red lines of the two warring sides remain and the path to finding a political solution that will bring Europe back to peace is full of thorns. The first attempt by Beijing has been made and now everyone is waiting for the next step.