Xi Jinping hails Africa’s upcoming peace mission to Russia, Ukraine

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday spoke highly of an upcoming peace mission on the Ukraine crisis by six African countries, describing it as a “good” thing.

Xi gave the praise during a phone call with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who told the Chinese leader that a peace delegation led by leaders of the six African countries, including South Africa, will visit Russia and Ukraine, in a push for an end to the conflict as soon as possible.

“It is good that Mr President and the leaders of the relevant African countries have formed the peace delegation and will visit Russia and Ukraine,” said Xi.

He reiterated that China’s position on the Ukraine crisis has been consistent and can be summarized as the promotion of peace talks, and voiced the hope that all parties will build up favorable conditions for resolving the crisis through dialogue.

The Chinese side hopes that all the peace-loving and justice-safeguarding countries in the world will make their rational voice of promoting peace talks heard, said Xi.

Ramaphosa said South Africa supports the Chinese position paper on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis, and he hopes that the parties concerned can resume negotiations at an early date.

The peace mission of the African countries will come following a Chinese special envoy’s Europe tour last month on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis.

China-South Africa relations

During the phone talks on Friday night, the two leaders also hailed bilateral relations.

Xi said China-South Africa relations are of strategic importance in safeguarding the common interests of the developing countries and guiding solidarity and cooperation between China and Africa at large.

China is ready to work with South Africa to elevate the 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 the developing countries and promote the international order to move towards a more just and reasonable direction, he said.

He added that China supports South Africa’s BRICS presidency and its hosting of various activities in the year.

For his part, Ramaphosa said South Africa values, and is proud of, the strong and high-level strategic partnership between the two countries.

Bilateral cooperation has also benefited Africa, he noted.

South Africa will deepen communication and coordination with China and other BRICS members to strengthen BRICS cooperation, he added.