Borrell plans to visit China, in full efforts of the EU to involve Beijing in the solution to the war in Ukraine

BRUSSELS, March 24 (EUROPA PRESS) -

The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, plans to visit China soon, although no set date has yet been set, on a trip that comes amid full efforts by the European bloc to get closer to Beijing and involve the Asian giant in an exit to the Russian aggression in Ukraine.

The head of European diplomacy plans to make a bilateral visit to Beijing, European sources have informed Europa Press, which avoid confirming the date of the trip. This visit coincides with the carousel of international leaders who will visit China in the coming weeks, following the trip of President Xi Jinping to Moscow to discuss the peace proposal for Ukraine with Vladimir Putin.

The Chinese president will first receive his Brazilian counterpart, Lula da Silva, who has proposed an alliance of mediaeval countries between kyiv and Moscow. Days later it will be the turn of Pedro Sánchez, the first European leader to arrive in China after Xi's trip to Moscow, while French President Emmanuel Macron will go to Beijing in early April and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also has a invitation on the table to go to China.

This intense agenda in Beijing coincides with an international context marked by Russian aggression and after Xi presented his peace proposal for Ukraine to his Russian counterpart during a several-day visit to Moscow.

Sánchez will focus his visit to China on bilateral ties with the Asian giant, government sources have indicated, explaining that the president neither represents the EU nor will he discuss the Chinese peace plan for Ukraine. "It is important to know first-hand his position on peace in Ukraine and to convey to him that it will be the Ukrainians who will establish the conditions for the start of that peace, when it arrives," Sánchez said upon arrival at the European summit this Thursday and Friday in Brussels.

In this meeting, the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, warned the bloc's leaders of the risk of not counting on China to seek an end to the war in Ukraine and insisted on the need for a "just peace", in line with the Charter of the United Nations, International Law and the resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

For its part, China has urged Europe to play its part in terms of talks to negotiate a ceasefire in the Ukraine war. "China hopes that France and other European countries will also play their role in this regard," said the head of Chinese diplomacy, Wang Yi, in a call with the diplomatic adviser to the French Presidency, Emmanuel Bonne.