Urging 'Calmness,' China Offers to Mediate Russia-Ukraine Talks

While offering to mediate peace negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv, China vowed Monday to provide swift humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and acknowledged that it maintains a positive relationship with Russia.

"China may be the world's best bet for brokering peace between Russia and the West."

"China is willing to continue to play a constructive role in pushing for peace and promoting talks, and is willing to work with the international community to carry out necessary mediation when needed," Foreign Minister Wang Yi reportedly told members of the press during the annual meeting of China's parliament.

While Wang emphasized Beijing's "rock solid" ties to Moscow, he also said that China's Red Cross will provide aid to Ukraine "as soon as possible."

"Solving complex problems requires calmness and rationality, rather than adding fuel to the fire and intensifying contradictions," said Wang.

Despite the worldwide denunciation of Russian President Vladimir Putin's ongoing military assault, "China has refused to condemn Russia's attack on Ukraine or call it an invasion while asking Western countries to respect Russia's 'legitimate security concerns,'" Reutersreported.

According to the news outlet, "Wang said the causes of the 'Ukraine situation' were 'complex' and had not happened overnight, noting, using a traditional Chinese expression, that 'three feet of ice does not form in a single day.'"

Although China had previously called for a diplomatic resolution to Russia's war on Ukraine, Wang's Monday statement marked the first time officials had formally expressed a desire to be directly involved in the process.

Many observers around the globe have argued that China is well-positioned to help Russia and Ukraine reach a peaceful settlement after multiple rounds of negotiations have failed and planned ceasefires to allow for civilian evacuations have fallen apart.

As the Washington Post reported:

Josep Borrell, the European Union's foreign policy chief, said in an interview published Friday that, when it came to mediating a peace deal, "it must be China." He told Spanish newspaper El Mundo: "We have not asked for it nor have they asked for it, but since it has to be a power and neither the U.S. nor Europe can be [mediators], China could be."

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Saturday that Chinese diplomacy had "sufficient tools to make a difference."

In an opinion piece published Monday in the South China Morning Post, Tom Plate, a distinguished scholar of Asian and Pacific Studies at Loyola Marymount University, made the case that "China may be the world's best bet for brokering peace between Russia and the West."

"The road to nuclear doomsday must be blocked," wrote Plate. "Western diplomatic thinking must expand, not tighten up, configuring a smart way to offer Putin, sane or not, a corridor to serious negotiation and peaceful settlement."

Given Beijing's recently improved relations with Moscow, plus its stated foreign policies of "non-interference in the internal affairs of another sovereign state" and "no first use" of nuclear weapons, China is an ideal candidate to lead de-escalation efforts, Plate argued.

"The Xi Jinping government should aim to broker a deal consistent with its core principles and reveal China as a pro-peace prime time international player," he added. "Beijing is not the only one that can mediate but, at this moment, it may be the best possible mediator the world has."