During a state visit to China, French President Emmanuel Macron appeared to suggest that he has faith in Chinese President Xi Jinping to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.
After attending a military parade in Beijing, the French president entered into closed-door discussions with President Xi in which the two leaders reportedly spoke “frankly” about a range of political issues.
Following the discussions, Macron told reporters on Thursday that the Chinese government is on the side of peace, wants to restart peace talks over Ukraine, and is seeking a “political solution” to the conflict.
During the speech, Macron frequently addressed the Chinese president directly and called on China to convince Russia to withdraw from Ukraine completely.
“I know I can count on you to bring Russia to its senses, and bring everyone back to the negotiating table,” Macron told Xi in front of the nation’s press.
While the Chinese president did not indicate that Beijing will take any new action to convince its ally to end the conflict, he did renew his call for peace talks to begin on Thursday.
“Peace talks should resume as soon as possible,” Xi said.
Macron was accompanied to China by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who said after the talks that the Chinese president “reiterated his willingness” to speak to Russia about the matter “when conditions and time are right.”
Can China End the Ukraine War?
If China can successfully convince the Russian president to end the invasion of Ukraine, and do so in a way that is acceptable to NATO countries – namely, allowing Ukraine to keep control of the four territories the Kremlin claimed to have “annexed” in September last year – it could come with some caveats.
Russia is unlikely to simply end the conflict, given the huge amount of money, lives, and military hardware lost in the more-than-year-long endeavor.
China could, however, make a series of promises to Russia that could convince the Russian president to cut his losses.
Since China put forward its own peace proposal to end the war on the first anniversary of the invasion, analysts have warned that the deal comes with hidden motives. Writing for Foreign Policy, senior China fellow at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies, Jo Inge Bekkevold, argued that there are at least three ulterior motives behind China’s plan.
First, Bekkevold argues, China aims to “present itself to the global south as a future peace broker.” Bekkevold also suggests that China’s proposal is also an effort to “reset its relationship with Europe,” and thirdly, Bekkevold says that China’s proposal is “part of Beijing’s effort to position itself in the reconstruction of postwar Ukraine.”
If China can convince Russia to end the war in Ukraine, Macron and other NATO leaders would be wise to consider the future implications such a deal could have for Europe and the West.
Jack Buckby is 19FortyFive’s Breaking News Editor. He is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
