At China-EU summit, Beijing will be reminded its support for Russian war in Ukraine comes at a cost
- EU leaders doubt they can force Beijing to ‘publicly alter their stance’, but there will be warnings about aiding Moscow any further
- The all-day summit will see European officials address Premier Li Keqiang in the morning and President Xi Jinping in the afternoon
European Union officials plan to press China’s top leaders over their support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Friday during a long-delayed summit that will be dominated by discussion of the war, now in its second month.
EU leaders doubt they can convince China to condemn Moscow’s actions. Nor do they believe they can force Beijing to “drastically and publicly alter their stance” towards the war, a senior EU official said.
But there are hopes that a frank discussion about the economic costs of supporting Russia may help convince Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang not to do anything to further damage already strained ties with Europe.
“We want to hear from them why they have sided with the Russians. And we will try and convince them that it’s not in our joint best interests, especially since we know that this war is not going to be solved by tomorrow,” an EU official said.
“We’re not asking them to slovenly walk behind us and say, ‘yes we love the EU’. We’re asking them to look into the reality and see what is going on in Ukraine, and not actively side with or provide arms to Russia,” the official added.
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Reflecting the low level of ambition going into the summit, there will be no joint statement, nor are many “deliverables” anticipated.