China’s Top Diplomat Checks In with Russia After Ukraine ‘Peace’ Summit, Playing Both Sides

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi assured Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in a phone call that their two countries remain “trustworthy and reliable friends,” the Chinese state-run Global Times newspaper reported on Tuesday, despite China’s presence at a Ukraine “peace” summit this weekend.

The summit, hosted by Saudi Arabia, counted on the participation of over 40 countries, including Argentina, Egypt, and Comoros – in addition to China – and the presence of a Ukrainian delegation. Russia, notably, was not represented at the summit. Russian diplomats spent the weekend dismissing the summit as useless and griping that Saudi Arabia did not invite Russian officials to the event.

Participants in the summit did not issue a joint statement, promote any roadmap to peace in Ukraine, or agree to any consensus on the top generally. They reportedly agreed to continue to host similar meetings. Both China and Saudi Arabia loudly declared the summit a success – and evidence that their respective countries’ geopolitical clout had increased significantly as a result of gathering the countries in question.

American officials also attended the event, which they described as “constructive.”

While condemning the summit itself, Russian officials markedly refused to criticize top ally China for its role in attending. Wang’s decision to immediately reach out to Lavrov indicates that the government of genocidal dictator Xi Jinping wants to ensure that Russian leaders do not perceive China as too biased towards Kyiv. China has insisted that is a neutral actor in the Russian invasion since it escalated in February 2022, noting that it is bound to Russia by decades of close relations and to Ukraine by the latter’s membership in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The BRI is China’s global plot to sell prohibitively expensive infrastructure projects to poor countries to later use the debts incurred to erode the sovereignty of those countries.

The Global Times claimed that Wang, in his phone call to Lavrov on Monday, emphasized that China wanted to maintain a “reliable” friendship with Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (Mikhail Svetlov/Getty)

“On the Ukraine crisis, Wang emphasized that China will uphold a fair position on any multilateral occasion, make objective and rational observations, actively promote peace and encourage talks and seek political solutions,” the state outlet relayed. “For his part, Lavrov said that Russia highly appreciates China’s position on a political resolution to the crisis and welcomes China’s constructive role in this regard.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry described the phone call in similar terms, adding that Lavrov celebrated China’s and Russia’s jointly belligerent stance against the free world.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said:

The ministers discussed a range of pressing issues on the international agenda. They noted their rejection of the Western bloc’s confrontational policy toward Russia and China, its attempts to contain their development by means of sanctions and other illegitimate methods.

They gave a positive assessment of the constructive dialogue and the high level of cooperation between Moscow and Beijing within the United Nations, BRICS, SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization – TASS), the Group of Twenty and other international structures.

The Ministry also noted that it was the first conversation between Wang and Lavrov since the Chinese diplomat returned to the foreign minister role in July.

Wang is China’s top diplomat and, as both foreign minister and the head of the Politburo’s foreign policy office, the most powerful diplomat in modern Chinese history. Wang served as foreign minister prior to taking on the foreign policy office role but returned to the Foreign Ministry in late July following the disappearance of former Foreign Minister Qin Gang. Qin has not been seen in public since late June; his whereabouts and condition remain a mystery at press time.

The Global Times‘ regime-approved Chinese “experts” claimed that the call was necessary to respond to “Western sensationalism” suggesting that Beijing is not entirely comfortable with the length and scope of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a friendly nation to China. The rumors of a “rift” between China and Russia on Ukraine resurfaced in international media in light of the markedly different responses of the two countries to the Jeddah “peace” summit.

“Unlike the Kyiv regime, which broke off and banned talks with Russia, we have been and remain open to resolving the crisis diplomatically, and we are ready to respond to truly serious proposals,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in response to the Jeddah summit, claiming that Russia was not invited and, without the invading power, “no meeting on Ukraine will have any added value at all.”

Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov described the positive comments from American officials on the Jeddah summit as “wishful thinking,” also condemning participants for not including Russia.

“We would like to understand how it is possible to discuss issues related to Russia’s security without taking into account our national interests. Is it still not clear to anyone that in such a situation it is impossible to achieve specific results?” Antonov asked, according to the Russian news agency Tass. “The Washington ‘peacekeepers’ actions do not stand up to scrutiny,” he continued. “Nothing but ‘double’ standards: first, they exclude our country from the negotiation process, and then publicly accuse us of unwillingness to participate in settling the conflict in Eastern Europe, unleashed by the United States and its satellites.”

In contrast, the Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Tuesday lavishing the Jeddah summit with praise over its significance.

“Special Representative of the Chinese Government on Eurasian Affairs Li Hui traveled to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to attend the meeting on the Ukraine issue at invitation,” the Foreign Ministry detailed. “He had extensive contact and exchanges with participating parties, made clear China’s position and propositions, listened to the opinions and advice from various parties, and worked for more common understandings on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis.”

“China’s positive role in promoting talks for peace was fully recognized,” the Foreign Ministry continued. “China will continue to act in the spirit of the four principles, joint efforts in four areas and three observations proposed by President Xi Jinping … and contribute to the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis.”

Li Hui is a former Chinese ambassador to Moscow and led a delegation on a tour of Europe, beginning in Ukraine and ending in Russia, in May in an attempt to rekindle dialogue between the two countries. Li’s visits did not result in any visible improvement in the ongoing Russian invasion situation.

Following Lavrov’s praiseful phone call with Wang, the Ukrainian government similarly issued statements thanking China for its alleged help in resolving the conflict.