China has proposed a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and United States President Donald Trump to help resolve the Ukraine conflict, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Chinese officials in recent weeks have raised a proposal with the Trump team through intermediaries to hold a summit between the two leaders and to facilitate peacekeeping efforts after an eventual truce, according to people in Beijing and Washington cited by the newspaper.
China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Desire For Peace
Trump said Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had expressed a desire for peace in separate phone calls with him on Wednesday, and Trump had ordered top U.S. officials to begin talks on ending the war in Ukraine.
The Kremlin had said Putin and Trump had agreed to meet, and Putin had invited Trump to visit Moscow. Trump said their first meeting would “probably” take place soon in Saudi Arabia.
No Peace Talks Yet
No Ukraine peace talks have been held since the early months of the conflict, now approaching its third anniversary.
Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, oversaw billions of dollars of military and other aid to Kyiv and had no direct contact with Putin after Russia’s invasion.
Russia Demands More Territory
Russia occupies about one-fifth of Ukraine and has demanded Kyiv cede more territory and be rendered permanently neutral under any peace deal.
Ukraine demands Russia withdraw from captured territory and says Kyiv must receive NATO membership or equivalent security guarantees to prevent Moscow from attacking again.
China’s Peacemaking Effort
China has been repeatedly urged by the West to use its close relationship with Russia to help end the Ukraine conflict.
Beijing has said it was not a party to the crisis but that it had been consistently promoting peace talks on its own terms.
In a peace plan last year, China, jointly with Brazil, proposed an international peace conference “at a proper time” and called for equal participation by both Ukraine and Russia.
(With inputs from Reuters)
