Lithuania says China peace plan will result in loss of Ukraine’s sovereignty

Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis rejected Beijing’s mediation bid, saying ‘you cannot have full sovereignty of a country, and loss of territory’

He added Putin’s announcement that he would station nuclear weapons in Belarus, days after meeting with Xi, amounts to a ‘slap in the face’ to China

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Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis. Photo: AFP

Published: 1:52pm, 6 Apr 2023Updated: 2:03pm, 6 Apr 2023

China cannot act as a peace mediator over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as Beijing’s stance would rob Kyiv of its sovereignty, according to Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis.

“We’ve already seen that they are aligning themselves, or they want Russia to align to their version of the global order,” Landsbergis told Bloomberg TV after a meeting of his Nato counterparts in Brussels. “And definitely in that world order, Ukraine is not able to maintain its full sovereignty.”

European leaders are trying to calibrate their relationship with China as it becomes an increasingly difficult interlocutor, partly given President Xi Jinping’s close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

French President Emmanuel Macron said earlier Wednesday that China can play a “major role” in Ukraine while adding that he opposes moves to decouple from the world’s second-biggest economy, as he pushes Europe to take a more moderate stance toward Beijing than the US is demanding.

Moments after Macron landed in China for a three-day visit, he made clear his strategy to appease tensions and find common ground with Beijing on several fronts, starting with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He suggested that China could use its close ties with Russia to push for peace.