‘Historical concerns’ between Russia and Ukraine must be resolved, says China

Kiev must communicate with Moscow if it wants the borders of 1991. According to Beijing’s ambassador to Brussels

Fu Cong, China’s ambassador to the EU, told a number of media sites that Beijing is open to whatever border solution for Ukraine that comes out of talks, according to a report by Al Jazeera on Tuesday.

When questioned earlier this month about whether Beijing might support Kiev’s claim to the Ukraine’s 1991 boundaries, Fu responded, “I don’t see why not.”

All nations’ territorial integrity is respected by us. So that’s what we agreed to when China established relations with the old Soviet Union, the ambassador continued. However, as I previously stated, these are historical matters that call for negotiation and resolution between Russia and Ukraine, and that is what we support.

Following the June 16 Europe-China Business Summit in Brussels, Fu allegedly made the remarks to them and two other media outlets. Why they went unnoticed until now is unknown.

Fu was formerly a top-tier arms-control negotiator, and since December 2022, he has represented Beijing in the EU. China proposed a 12-point “roadmap” for a diplomatic settlement in February and has frequently called for a peaceful end to the conflict in Ukraine. The current African Union peace initiative has received support from Beijing as well.

While Kiev, the US, and the EU have all rejected both plans outright, Moscow has been amenable to both with a few caveats. Josep Borrell, the EU’s commissioner for foreign policy, described China’s roadmap as “a set of wishful considerations, wishful thinking,” but “not a peace plan,” last month.

Borrell contends that Vladimir Zelensky’s “peace plan,” which he claims amounts to a Russian submission, is the only legitimate “peace plan”. Zelensky wants Moscow to “return” all of the territory Kiev claims, including Crimea as well as the four districts that voted to join Russia in the fall of 2022.

Following the US-backed coup in Kiev, the peninsula, which Nikita Khrushchev had joined to Ukraine in 1954, voted to re-join Russia in March 2014. Moscow sees no room for negotiation when it comes to its status as a part of Russia. The Kremlin has also asserted that Kiev must “recognize reality” if the regions of Kherson, Zaporozhye, Donetsk, and Lugansk decide to become Russian.