Spanish PM says he encouraged China's Xi to speak with Zelenskiy

[March 31, 2023]  BEIJING (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Friday that he had expressed concern over Russia's invasion of Ukraine during a meeting earlier that day with Chinese President Xi Jinping and encouraged him to talk to Kyiv.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez shake hands in Beijing, China, March 31, 2023. Moncloa Palace/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa/Handout via REUTERS

Sanchez told a news conference in Beijing he had told Xi that Spain supported the peace formula proposed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in November, which includes demands to restore Ukraine's territory to the status quo before Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea.

"I transmitted our concern at the illegal invasion of Ukraine," Sanchez said, adding that he "encouraged Xi to talk to President Zelenskiy" to learn first-hand about Kyiv's peace plan.

"I believe it's a plan that lays the foundations for a durable peace in Ukraine and is perfectly aligned with the United Nations charter and its principles, which have been violated by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin with his invasion," he said.

Sanchez declined to say what Xi had told him on the issue.

Last month, Beijing put forward its own 12-point peace plan and called for a comprehensive ceasefire in the conflict.

Spain, a NATO member whose foreign policy is closely aligned with the United States, is a staunch ally of Ukraine and will assume the presidency of the Council of the European Union in July.

(Reporting by Eduardo Baptista and Laurie Chen in Beijing, additional reporting by David Latona in Madrid, editing by Andrei Khalip, William Maclean)

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