
Roving Periscope: Trump wants China to press Putin for the Ukraine deal!
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: He may be grabbing headlines in world media for his ‘reckless’ announcements, but few, if any, might take his boasts and alleged threats seriously—especially outside the United States. With Moscow downplaying his call to strike a peace deal with Ukraine as “nothing new,”, US President Donald Trump has turned to China to press Russia to end the nearly three-year-old conflict.
Interestingly, Trump has also threatened China with additional tariffs!
“Hopefully China can help us stop the war,” he said during a Thursday video address at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, the media reported.
He sought to mount pressure on President Vladimir Putin to negotiate a deal to end Russia’s war on Ukraine by indicating he’s seeking to partner with China to try to settle.
President Trump discussed the issue with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during a recent phone call “and hopefully we could work together and get that stopped,” he said. The Chinese readout from that discussion stated the two “exchanged views on the Ukraine crisis,” without providing any further detail.
Asked if the war could be ended within the next year, Trump replied: “You’re going to have to ask Russia, Ukraine is ready to make a deal.”
His decision to focus attention on Putin, rather than Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is likely to raise anxiety within the Kremlin about its ability to influence the new US administration to secure a favorable outcome to the war.
The attempt to join forces with China will also spark unease because Putin has relied heavily on a strategic partnership with Xi to dilute the impact of Western sanctions on Russia’s economy.
President Zelenskiy made similar comments on China’s potential role in achieving peace. Xi “can push Putin for peace,” he said. “President Trump is the strongest — and Xi Jinping. I think there’s no other ally who can do it.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said her nation was “happy to see all parties play a constructive role and build conditions for de-escalation and political settlement of the crisis.”
“China will continue to promote peace talks and maintain communication with other parties,” Mao said at a regular press briefing in Beijing on Friday.
Hours before Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday for a second, non-consecutive four-year-term, Putin had complimented the US leader and said Russia was open to “mutually respectful” talks with him about the war.
Since then, Trump has taken to social media to urge Putin to “make a deal” or face further sanctions on Russia and suggested the US may team up with Russia’s closest partner to push for a settlement to the war.
Xi and Putin held a call a day after Trump’s inauguration where they talked up the China-Russia relationship. Russian media reported that the Chinese leader briefed Moscow on his call with Trump and that both China and Russia were open to dialogue with the US president on Ukraine “if appropriate signals come from Washington.”
The two leaders declared a “no-limits friendship” just weeks before Putin launched his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Though Beijing has stepped up efforts to position itself as a peacemaker that could help end the conflict, a peace plan it put forward in 2023 faced criticism by those who saw it as favoring Moscow.