China seeks to establish alternative peace process for Ukraine, prominent journalist says

Beijing is attempting to veer dialogue for achieving peace in Russia’s war against Ukraine alongside Kyiv’s Peace Summit platform, a well-known Ukrainian journalist, political analyst, and commentator Vitaly Portnikov, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

China’s first attempt to establish an alternative agenda occurred before the June Peace Summit in Switzerland. At that time, the country’s special envoy, Li Hui, embarked on a visit to Global South countries, Portnikov said.

“Subsequently, Beijing decided to give its plan an international character – this happened after talks between China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Brazilian presidential adviser Celso Amorim, during which the Chinese plan was characterized as a China-Brazil consensus,” Portnikov said.

During last month’s UN General Assembly session, Wang Yi and Celso Amorim met again to expand to garner additional supporters for their “peace plan.” 

Envoys from another 11 Global South countries and the post-Soviet space also joined the discussion, including diplomats from Türkiye, Kazakhstan, Mexico, South Africa, Egypt, and Hungary.

“But even such a meeting is just the beginning of the process of creating a platform for ‘Friends of Peace,’ who are supposed to convene in an even broader circle,” Portnikov said.

The presentation of this “neutral” platform is planned for the 16th BRICS summit taking place in Russia’s Kazan region on Oct. 22-24. The intergovernmental informal grouping of countries was originally formed by Brazil, Russia, India and China, with South Africa later joining it. 

“Of course, you couldn’t find a better place to demonstrate ‘neutrality!’” the journalist said sarcastically.

However, Portnikov said that if one didn’t want to be ironic about these Chinese efforts, it was difficult not to recognize that Beijing was indeed attempting to establish another dialogue platform alongside the Peace Summit platform.

“It aims to offer an alternative to Global South countries, which, on one hand, would like to declare their peaceful intentions but, on the other, do not wish to spoil relations with Russia and China,” Portnikov wrote.

Such an approach may work – “even if the approach of China and Brazil is criticized by the president of Ukraine from the podium at the UN General Assembly session,” the journalist said.

Read the full text of the column at the link.