EU considering only Zelensky’s peace plan, sees China’s proposal as not serious — Borrell

BRUSSELS (TASS) : The EU believes that the only viable peace plan for Ukraine is the plan put forward by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. Brussels does not take the Chinese initiative seriously, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Friday.

Brussels’ top diplomat said, at the State of the Union 2023 conference in Florence, that the EU’s point of view is that diplomatic negotiations for achieving peace in Ukraine would not currently make any sense.

Borrell also criticized China for supporting Russia, but pointed out that, according to Brussels, China was not yet supplying Russia with weapons.

“The only thing that could be called [a] peace plan is Zelensky’s proposal. Because the Chinese ‘peace plan,’ well, it’s not a peace plan, it’s a set of wishful consideration[s], wishful thinkings, but it’s not a peace plan. The only one [plan] is the one that has been proposed by the Ukrainians, but, certainly, it has not been accepted by the Russians. <…> So, peace plans are good, but you need someone that wants to talk about peace, really. If you find someone who says, ‘I have military objectives, and I will continue bombing, I will continue fighting, until I got them [the objectives],’ well, what kind of a peace talk would you want to do?” Borrell asked rhetorically.

China has role to play

He also pointed out that the EU had said from the very beginning that “China has a role to play.” However, then China came up with a peace initiative, which “was strongly criticized [in the West], because certainly China is on the side of Russia.”

“I think China has a role to play. China is a permanent member of the [UN] Security Council. China is the one who has the biggest influence on Russia. China has not provided arms to Russia, until now,” Borrel said, noting that he had a positive assessment of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent telephone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, Vladimir Zelensky.

Borrel also said he found it incomprehensible why he is often asked what is preventing countries around the world from supplying weapons to Russia if the West is supplying weapons to Ukraine on such a massive scale.

EU defense chief

Borell emphasized that the EU had to continue its support for Ukraine’s military efforts. “This is not the moment for diplomatic conversations about peace; it’s the moment of supporting [Ukraine] militarily [in] the war,” he said.

“So, I feel as a diplomat, but I feel also as a kind of defense minister with the European Union, because I spend quite an important part of my time talking about arms [and] ammunitions,” the EU foreign policy chief confessed, “I never thought that I was going to spend so much time thinking about how many shots or artillery can I provide, can we Europeans provide to the Ukrainians.”.