National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan dismisses Chinese ‘peace deal’ for Ukraine and Russia as ‘one-sided diplomacy’ as top Republican says it’s ‘disturbing’ Beijing is weighing sending lethal aid to Moscow
- Sullivan said Sunday Chinese President Xi Jinping needs to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky if he wants to broker a peace deal
- Comes after reports emerged China is considering sending lethal aid to Russia in its war with Ukraine
- Ukraine is now in its second year of war after Russia invaded last February
The Biden administration is tearing into China for proposing a so-called ‘peace deal’ between Ukraine and Russia without first speaking with Kyiv.
The proposal came amid claims from top Biden officials that Russia is weighing sending ‘lethal aid’ to Russia as it continues its invasion in Ukraine, which sparked a more than year-long war last February.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said China is engaging in ‘one-sided diplomacy’ and said President Xi Jinping needs to speak with Ukrainian President Volodytmyr Zelensky, who has expressed interest in discussing the proposal.
‘China put forward this plan without having had a single conversation since the war began between President Xi and President Zelenskyy,’ Sullivan told NBC’s Meet the Press host Chuck Todd on Sunday morning.
‘The Chinese have talked to the Russians a lot, but at the most senior levels, they have not talked to the Ukrainians and it’s very difficult to advance any kind of peace initiative when there’s that kind of one-sided diplomacy going on,’ he said. ‘So from our perspective, the critical thing is that any peace plan offered by anybody has to involve the input of Ukraine.’
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Sunday that China needs to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky if he wants to broker a peace-deal
Chinese President Xi Jinping is calling for a cease-fire in Ukraine and claims it could broker a peace deal between the two nations. It comes after reports emerged that China is considering sending lethal aid to Russia in its war with Ukraine
‘As President Biden has constantly said, nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine and that goes for this initiative, as well as any other initiative under the sun,’ Sullivan added.
President Joe Biden visited Ukraine last week in an unannounced trip to mark the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
Biden met with Zelensky and spent 5 hours in the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv.
During that trip, Biden pledged the U.S. to another $500 million in aid for Ukraine in the war with Russia – and called on other countries to continue showing their support for the war-torn country.
Meanwhile, Republicans and national security hawks are still reeling over reports that Beijing is weighing send lethal assistance to Moscow to help it defeat Ukraine.
‘The fact that they’re going to meet next week – Chairman Xi and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin – to discuss this unholy alliance that they have, to put weapons into Ukraine, to me is very disturbing,’ Texas Representative Michael McCaul told ABC’s This week program Sunday morning.
‘While maybe Ukraine today, it’s going to be Taiwan tomorrow,’ McCaul added. ‘That’s why this is so important.’
McCaul chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee and is a member of the Homeland Security panel.
Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said it is ‘disturbing’ that that China is weighing sending lethal assistance to Russia
Biden visited Kyiv, Ukraine for five hours in an unannounced trip last week to mark the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion. He met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the ground in Kyiv on February 20, 2023
Sullivan says that Zelensky is interested in speaking with China about its proposal for a cease-fire and brokering a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.
‘What President Zelenskyy said were there were parts of the plan he didn’t like and parts of the plan that he thought could be okay,’ Sullivan explained.
‘One part of the plan that I particularly liked is point one of the plan. Point one of the plan was: respect the sovereignty of all nations,’ the NSA to Biden said. ‘The plan could just stop there because Russia could end this war by respecting Ukraine’s sovereignty and pulling out.’
‘But what President Zelenskyy also said, and this is critical, Chuck, is that he would like to speak to President Xi,’ he added.
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