Christoph B. Schiltz | March 22, 2025 | Permalink

TRANSLATED FROM GERMAN VERSION OF WELT ARTICLE FOUND HERE

The matter is considered “sensitive”: Diplomats from Beijing have asked the EU to participate in a peacekeeping force in Ukraine. It is hoped that Russia will be moved by China's participation in a mission.

China is apparently considering taking part in possible peacekeeping troops in Ukraine. Chinese diplomats in Brussels have sounded out whether such a step would be conceivable and possibly even desirable from the Europeans' point of view, reports WELT AM SONNTAG, citing EU diplomatic circles familiar with the matter. According to diplomatic circles in Brussels: “The involvement of China in a ‘coalition of the willing’ could possibly increase Russia's acceptance of peacekeeping troops in Ukraine.” In any case, however, the matter is “delicate”.

Background: French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a new summit of Ukraine supporters for next Thursday. “We are holding a summit of the coalition of the willing next Thursday,” Macron said on Thursday evening after the EU summit in Brussels. “The objective for me on Thursday is first of all that there is a repeated and explicit and perhaps a little bit specified commitment to support Ukraine in the short term.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj will also be attending the summit in Paris, Macron added. Both Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are prepared to deploy peacekeeping troops in Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire between Moscow and Kiev - an idea that Russia has so far vehemently rejected.

The British government had stated that it expected more than 30 countries to participate in one form or another in the so-called coalition of the willing. Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer have been working for weeks to coordinate the European allies with regard to further support for Ukraine. Both have already organized several meetings in Paris and London in recent weeks.

In the struggle for a ceasefire in Ukraine, the USA will once again hold talks with Russia and representatives from Kiev next Monday. Macron said in Brussels that Moscow's refusal to agree to a 30-day ceasefire advocated by the USA and Ukraine shows that “Russia is not seriously interested in peace at the moment”. The Russian army's night-time drone and missile attacks were further proof of Moscow's unwillingness to make peace, the French President emphasized on Friday.