By Mei Mei Chu and Ryan Woo
BEIJING (Reuters) – China has floated a proposal to hold a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump to help end the Ukraine war, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people 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.
Asked about the newspaper report at a regular news conference on Thursday, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said he had “no information to offer”.
Trump said Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy 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.
“China is happy to see Russia and the United States strengthen communication on a series of international issues,” said Guo Jiakun, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson. “Russia and the United States are both influential major countries.”
No Ukraine peace talks have been held since the early months of the conflict, now approaching its third anniversary. Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, had no direct contact with Putin after Russia’s invasion.
“China has always believed that dialogue and negotiation are the only viable way to resolve the crisis and has always insisted on promoting peace and dialogue,” Guo said. “China supports all efforts conducive to a peaceful resolution of the crisis, and will continue to maintain communication with relevant parties and continue to play a constructive role in promoting a political solution to the crisis.”
China has been repeatedly urged by the West to use its close relationship with Russia to help end the war. 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.
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.
(Reporting by Ryan Woo and Chu Mei Mei; Additional reporting by Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Gerry Doyle)
