China joins Ukraine talks in Jeddah

Chinese special envoy for Eurasian affairs Li Hui will take part in weekend talks in Saudi Arabia on finding a peaceful settlement to the war in Ukraine, China’s foreign ministry said on Friday.

“China is willing to work with the international community to continue to play a constructive role in promoting a political solution to the crisis,” ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.

Ukrainian and Western diplomats hope the meeting in Jeddah of national security advisers and other senior officials from about 40 countries will agree on key principles for a future peace settlement.

The participation of China is a diplomatic coup for the Kingdom. China was invited to a previous round of talks in Copenhagen in late June but did not attend.

Saudi diplomacy played a key role in persuading Beijing to attend the Jeddah talks, a German official said.

Saudi state news agency SPA said the kingdom anticipated the meeting would reinforce “dialogue and cooperation… to ensure a solution for the crisis through political and diplomatic means.”

Ukrainian and Western officials said Riyadh wants to play a prominent diplomatic role.

The gathering is more palatable to Beijing with Saudi Arabia as host since it will not be seen as engineered by the West, said Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Stimson Center in Washington.

A senior European Union official said Saudi Arabia reached “into parts of the world where (Ukraine’s) classical allies would not get to as easily.”

10-point formula

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday he hoped the initiative will lead to a “peace summit” of leaders from around the world this autumn to endorse the principles, based on his own 10-point formula for a settlement.

Zelensky’s formula includes respect for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and the withdrawal of Russian troops, anathema to Moscow which claims to have annexed occupied Ukrainian territory forever.

Ukrainian, Russian and international officials say there is no prospect of direct peace talks between Ukraine and Russia at the moment, as the war continues to rage and Kyiv seeks to reclaim territory through a counter-offensive.

But Ukraine aims first to build a bigger coalition of diplomatic support beyond its core Western backers by reaching out to Global South countries such as India, Brazil and South Africa, many of which have remained publicly neutral.

Earlier this week, the Kremlin said it would keep an eye on the Jeddah meeting, while restating Moscow’s position that it currently saw no grounds for peace talks with Kyiv.

“We need to understand what goals are set and what will be discussed. Any attempt to promote a peaceful settlement deserves a positive evaluation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

Western diplomats say an endorsement of all of Zelensky’s peace formula is highly unlikely at the talks. But they want to at least get clear backing for principles enshrined in the UN Charter — the founding document of the United Nations — such as territorial integrity.

The US and its allies also have been wary about embracing a Beijing-led peace initiative, and analysts doubted China would look to take a leading role at the conference.

“I don’t see the Chinese pushing an agenda,” said Jon Alterman, head of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Beijing’s participation was more likely motivated by prestige and the opportunity to court Middle East and Global South countries.

In seeking to win over Global South countries, Western officials said they will stress that food prices have jumped since Russia quit a deal to allow safe passage of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea and carried out a string of air strikes on Ukraine’s ports.

“We’ll be for sure making this point and loud and clear,” another senior EU official said.

As officials prepared for the talks, Ukraine carried out a drone strike against Russian naval targets on the Black Sea, damaging the Olenegrorsky Gornyak landing ship in the Novorossiysk naval base in southern Russia.

“The goal was to show that Ukraine can attack any Russian warship in that zone,” a Ukrainian security source said.

“Another Russian ship is on the edge of its fall,” the Ukrainian foreign ministry said, publishing video footage of a military vessel listing heavily.

Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said: “The presence of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea… will be put to an end. Ukraine will ensure freedom and security in the Black Sea for world trade.”