NEW DELHI: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Chinese President Xi Jinping had assured him, in a phone conversation, that China would not sell weapons to Russia, during a joint press conference with US President Joe Biden at the G7 summit in Italy on Thursday.
Although he did not specify the when the conversation took place.
Zelenskyy said, “I had a firm conversation with (the) leader of China.He said that he will not sell any weapon to Russia. We’ll see if he’s (a) respectable person he will not, because he gave me (his) word.”
Following Zelenskyy’s statement, Biden said, “By the way, China is not supplying weapons but the ability to produce those weapons and the technology available to do it, so it is in fact helping Russia.”
The Ukrainian leader further said that if Ukraine and China shared the same views on peace, there could be a dialogue between the two nations, however, if China had a different perspective, he suggested that they could develop an alternative “peace formula.”
Zelenskyy has been actively promoting his own vision for peace in Ukraine, which he refers to as his “peace formula.”
Switzerland is set to host an international summit this weekend, with delegations from numerous countries and organizations attending to discuss ways to bring peace to Ukraine.
The last publicly known phone call between Zelenskyy and Xi took place in April 2023, the only such communication since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
(With inputs from agencies)