During his official visit to Beijing on March 1 this year, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko «enlisted the support» of Chinese President Xi Jinping in the possibility of holding negotiations on a peaceful solution to the confrontation between Russia and Ukraine. This is stated in the communique of the meeting between the leaders of the Republic of Belarus and the People’s Republic of China, published on the eve of the Chinese media. According to independent analysts, the stay of the Belarusian leader in the Celestial Empire «was of an ordinary nature» and was not marked by the signing of any important international document. Except for some memorandum.
Formally, Lukashenko`s visit to China took place under the auspices of strengthening bilateral economic cooperation between Minsk and Beijing. Earlier, the Belarusian leader has repeatedly stated his country’s intention to establish contacts with the PRC in the field of high technologies and the automotive industry. However, negotiations between Alexander Grigoryevich and Comrade Xi began with a discussion of the prospects for signing a peace treaty between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. «Belarus fully supports the position of the People’s Republic of China on overcoming the crisis in Ukraine», – Lukashenko noted, in particular. – All points of your plan deserve attention and should be implemented in the near future. For our part, we will do our best to bring this project to life».
At the same time, Lukashenko could not answer the question of Xi Jinping which particular paragraph of the mentioned document really received the attention of the Belarusian authorities. It is clearly impossible to say that the President of the Republic of Belarus was not familiar with the main provisions of the «peace plan from the China»: earlier the head of Belarus praised Beijing’s desire to “put an end to the confrontation in Ukraine». «Minsk is not a party to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, but, as a country bordering Ukraine, Belarus is interested in the speedy end of such a confrontation, – he told – China has proposed a plan that suits us as well».
«In essence, the relevant plan of the PRC is not original, – European political expert Alexander Mitz told EURO-ATLANTIC UKRAINE in a commentary. – Beijing offers Kyiv and Moscow to sit down at the negotiating table on the condition that Russian control over Crimea is maintained and Ukraine refuses to join the North Atlantic Alliance. China and a number of countries of the United Europe should become guarantors of such a world. Now it’s plus Belarus». According to the expert words, the role of Minsk in this matter is difficult to overestimate. «Belarus, being a de facto satellite of Moscow, is quite capable of becoming, if not the main, then at least a significant link in the proposed negotiation chain,» – Mitz said. “This will automatically bring Belarus to a fundamentally new level in the international arena.”
Be that as it may, Minsk did not voice its own opinion on ending the war in Ukraine.
