SYDNEY, March 18. /TASS/. The US will seek to stymie China’s initiatives in order to prevent its diplomatic triumph, Dr. Scott Burchill of Australia’s Deakin University told TASS, commenting on China’s efforts to help resolve the conflict in Ukraine.
According to the expert, China’s peace plan for Ukraine and Xi Jinping’s upcoming talks with the Russian leadership need to be considered in the context of Beijing’s new role as a constructive global power and a mediator in resolving complicated conflicts, but the US is unlikely to welcome these efforts.
The United States will be unwilling to hand the diplomatic triumph of resolving the conflict to China, Burchill pointed out. "The Chinese, as you know probably, worry the Americans at the moment, so handing them the diplomatic triumph would be the last thing on his [US President Joe Biden’s] agenda and the question is would Europeans be able to extract that some sort of the negotiation channel which keeps the Americans at bay and then puts the pressure on the Americas to relent that," he added.
"The problem is who could be the third party to bring people together to do this because everyone now states their position on where they stand mostly in the West in the favor of Ukraine," the expert noted. "I think at the moment anyone in the West that wants to play that role has to be ready to take on the Americans and that’s the real problem for them," Burchill stressed.
In February, the Chinese Foreign Ministry published a 12-point document clarifying Beijing’s position on finding a political solution to the Ukrainian issue. The document particularly calls for a ceasefire, respect for the legitimate security interests of all countries, a solution to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, prisoner exchanges between Moscow and Kiev and the rejection of unilateral sanctions not authorized by the UN Security Council.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will make a state visit to Russia on March 20-22.