KYIV: Ukraine’s foreign minister arrived in China on Tuesday for talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi on ways to achieve a “fair peace” in the war with Russia and also to discuss bilateral relations, he said.
Dmytro Kuleba’s visit is the first by a high-ranking Ukrainian official since Russia’s full-scale February 2022 invasion, which China, the world’s second largest economy, has not publicly condemned.
Kuleba said he would hold “extensive, detailed, substantive negotiations” with his Chinese counterpart, but did not say when the talks would happen. He said earlier his trip would continue until Thursday.
“We must avoid competition between peace plans. It is very important that Kyiv and Beijing conduct a direct dialogue,” he wrote in a statement on Instagram, announcing his arrival in China.
Various peace initiatives have emerged in recent months ahead of a US election in November that could see the return to the White House of former president Donald Trump who has threatened to cut vital aid flows to Ukraine. The United States under President Joe Biden has been Ukraine’s biggest backer.
Kyiv is pushing to hold a second international summit later this year to advance its vision for peace after an initial gathering in Switzerland in June drew dozens of delegations from around the world but not from Russia or China.
Ukraine has said it would like its second summit to be hosted by a “Global South” country and that Russia could attend. Kyiv has also said it would like to see China play a more active role in ending the war.
China and Brazil published a joint six-point peace proposal in May, saying they supported the holding of an international peace conference that both sides in the war would recognize.
Kuleba said his trip to China, the first by a Ukrainian foreign minister since 2012, aimed to develop contacts between Chinese and Ukrainian leaders.
China declared a “no limits” partnership with Russia in 2022 days before the invasion and has helped Russia keep its economy afloat. China says its ties with Russia are built on the basis of non-alliance and do not target any third party.
Ukraine’s foreign minister arrives in China to discuss ‘fair peace’
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Ukraine’s foreign minister arrives in China to discuss ‘fair peace’
- Kuleba said he would hold “extensive, detailed, substantive negotiations” with his Chinese counterpart
- “We must avoid competition between peace plans. It is very important that Kyiv and Beijing conduct a direct dialogue,” he wrote in a statement on Instagram
Venezuela’s acting president calls for oil industry reforms to attract more foreign investment
- In her speech, Rodríguez said money earned from foreign oil sales would go into two funds: one dedicated to social services for workers and the public health care system, and another to economic development and infrastructure projects
CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez used her first state of the union address on Thursday to promote oil industry reforms that would attract foreign investment, an objective aggressively pushed by the Trump administration since it toppled the country’s longtime leader less than two weeks ago.
Rodríguez, who has been under pressure from the US to fall in line with its vision for the oil-rich nation, said sales of Venezuelan oil would go to bolster crisis-stricken health services, economic development and other infrastructure projects.
While she sharply criticized the Trump administration and said there was a “stain on our relations,” the former vice president also outlined a distinct vision for the future between the two historic adversaries, straying from her predecessors, who have long railed against American intervention in Venezuela.
“Let us not be afraid of diplomacy” with the US, said Rodriguez, who must now navigate competing pressures from the Trump administration and a government loyal to former President Nicolás Maduro.
The speech, which was broadcast on a delay in Venezuela, came one day after Rodríguez said her government would continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro in what she described as “a new political moment” since his ouster.
Trump on Thursday met at the White House with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose political party is widely considered to have won 2024 elections rejected by Maduro. But in endorsing Rodríguez, who served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018, Trump has sidelined Machado.
In her speech, Rodríguez said money earned from foreign oil sales would go into two funds: one dedicated to social services for workers and the public health care system, and another to economic development and infrastructure projects.
Hospitals and other health care facilities across the country have long suffered. Patients are asked to provide practically all supplies needed for their care, from syringes to surgical screws. Economic turmoil, among other factors, has pushed millions of Venezuelans to migrate from the South American nation in recent years.
In moving forward, the acting president must walk a tightrope, balancing pressures from both Washington and top Venezuelan officials who hold sway over Venezuela’s security forces and strongly oppose the US Her recent public speeches reflect those tensions — vacillating from conciliatory calls for cooperation with the US, to defiant rants echoing the anti-imperialist rhetoric of her toppled predecessor.
American authorities have long railed against a government they describe as a “dictatorship,” while Venezuela’s government has built a powerful populist ethos sharply opposed to US meddling in its affairs.
For the foreseeable future, Rodríguez’s government has been effectively relieved of having to hold elections. That’s because when Venezuela’s high court granted Rodríguez presidential powers on an acting basis, it cited a provision of the constitution that allows the vice president to take over for a renewable period of 90 days.
Trump enlisted Rodríguez to help secure US control over Venezuela’s oil sales despite sanctioning her for human rights violations during his first term. To ensure she does his bidding, Trump threatened Rodríguez earlier this month with a “situation probably worse than Maduro.”
Maduro, who is being held in a Brooklyn jail, has pleaded not guilty to drug-trafficking charges.
Before Rodríguez’s speech on Thursday, a group of government supporters was allowed into the presidential palace, where they chanted for Maduro, who the government insists remains the country’s president. “Maduro, resist, the people are rising,” they shouted.
