China signals readiness to send peacekeepers to Ukraine
China has signaled it is ready to send its troops to Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping mission, reports the newspaper Welt am Sonntag, citing unnamed EU diplomats who, in turn, point to sources in Chinese government circles.
Beijing is prepared to take that step on the condition that the peacekeeping force operates under a United Nations mandate, the report says.
Chinese authorities previously denied they were discussing sending peacekeepers to Ukraine.
Media reports about such plans are “completely inconsistent with reality,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said in March.
In Brussels, the prospect drew a mixed reaction, Welt am Sonntag reports. On one hand, involving countries from the Global South, such as China, could bolster support for deploying an international force in Ukraine to monitor compliance with a ceasefire.
“But on the other hand, there’s a risk China would focus on espionage in Ukraine and, in the event of a crisis, take a clearly pro-Russian stance instead of remaining neutral,” a senior EU diplomat familiar with the talks told reporters on condition of anonymity.
Most EU countries, for various reasons, are not pushing to secure a UN mandate for the force before sending it to Ukraine, the report says. At the same time, Italy has stressed it would only send its own peacekeepers to Ukraine with a UN mandate.
On August 20, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, commenting on discussions around security guarantees for Ukraine, said an agreement cannot be reached without Russia’s participation — and possibly China’s.
In the West, especially in the United States, there’s an understanding that seriously debating security without Moscow “is utopian and a road to nowhere,” he said.
That stance runs counter to remarks by US President Donald Trump, who, after a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said he believed European security guarantees were not a problem.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, for his part, has spoken out against inviting Chinese peacekeepers to his country.
“We need security guarantees only from countries ready to help us,” he said.
As Welt am Sonntag notes, “since the start of the war in Ukraine, Beijing has supported Moscow through multibillion-dollar oil purchases and by supplying electronic components used to produce precision weapons.”