9th June 2023 – (Beijing) Chinese President Xi Jinping has praised an upcoming peace mission on the Ukraine crisis by six African countries, describing it as a “good” thing. Speaking during a phone call with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday, Xi expressed his support for the peace delegation, which will be led by leaders of the six African countries, including South Africa, and will visit Russia and Ukraine to push for an end to the conflict.
Xi reiterated China’s position on the Ukraine crisis, emphasizing the importance of promoting peace talks and calling on all parties to build favorable conditions for resolving the crisis through dialogue. He expressed hope that all peace-loving and justice-safeguarding countries in the world will make their voices heard in support of promoting peace talks.
Ramaphosa, in turn, expressed South Africa’s support for China’s position paper on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis and hopes that the parties concerned can resume negotiations at an early date. The peace mission by the African countries follows a Europe tour last month by a Chinese special envoy on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis.
During the phone call, the two leaders also hailed the strategic importance of China-South Africa relations in safeguarding the common interests of developing countries and guiding solidarity and cooperation between China and Africa. Xi expressed China’s readiness to work with South Africa to elevate bilateral ties, build a high-level China-South Africa community with a shared future, and practice genuine multilateralism to jointly safeguard the common interests of developing countries and promote a more just and reasonable international order.
Ramaphosa, for his part, said that South Africa values and is proud of the strong and high-level strategic partnership between the two countries. He noted that bilateral cooperation has also benefited Africa and pledged to deepen communication and coordination with China and other BRICS members to strengthen BRICS cooperation.