China cannot be trusted to mediate any peace deal between Russia and Ukraine as Beijing is benefitting from the war, Czech President Petr Pavel told Politico in an interview.
On the one-year anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, China issued a 12-point peace plan to bring an end to Russia's war against Ukraine. Beijing's attempts to be seen as a peacemaker in the war has been met with skepticism among many Western countries.
French President French President Emmanuel Macron, however, believes China could help bring Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table.
Pavel thinks that China is only looking out for itself, saying that he believes "it is in China’s interest to prolong the status quo,” Pavel said, “because it can push Russia to a number of concessions," Politico reported.
And as Beijing is getting cheap oil, gas, and other resources from Moscow, Pavel said he doesn't think that “China has a real interest to resolve the war in a short time.”
“It is also good for China that the West is probably becoming a little bit weaker by supporting Ukraine,” he said, Politico reported.
He also told the news outlet that China is watching the war developments very closely. "China is taking lessons out of the conflict every day,” he said. “They closely follow what Russia is doing, how the West is reacting.”
Illia Ponomarenko
