China urges ‘peaceful’ end to Ukraine war as Russia plans to move nuclear weapons into Belarus

All parties should ‘jointly promote the relaxation of the situation’ over Ukraine, Chinese foreign ministry says
Russia’s plan to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus comes days after joint pledge with China against such moves

Ukraine war

Cyril Ip

Published: 8:53pm, 27 Mar 2023

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Beijing has reiterated its call for resolving the Ukraine war “peacefully”, after Russia said it would station tactical nuclear weapons in neighbouring Belarus, days after a joint pledge with China against deploying nuclear weapons beyond national territories.

Asked about Moscow’s latest move, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said: “Under the current circumstances, all parties should focus on diplomatic efforts to peacefully resolve the Ukrainian crisis and jointly promote the relaxation of the situation.

“In January last year, the leaders of the five nuclear-weapon states issued a joint statement, pointing out that a nuclear war cannot be won or fought, emphasising that wars between nuclear-weapon states should be avoided and strategic risks should be reduced,” Mao told a regular press briefing on Monday.

The deployment would mark the first time that Russian nuclear arms would be based beyond its borders since the mid-1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

It also follows several nuclear threats by Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in February last year.

03:15

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Russian President Vladimir Putin compared the move to the US stationing its weapons on allied territory “for decades”.

“There is nothing unusual here either,” Putin said on Saturday, adding that the move would not violate Moscow’s nuclear non-proliferation agreements.

The announcement came days after Putin and visiting Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping signed a joint statement following talks in Moscow last week, stating that nuclear war must never be unleashed.

“All nuclear powers must not deploy nuclear weapons outside their national territories and must withdraw all their nuclear weapons placed abroad,” the document emphasised, calling for efforts to “reduce the risk of unleashing a nuclear war and any armed conflict between [each other]”.

“Amid the degradation of relations between nuclear powers, measures to reduce strategic risks must be incorporated into general efforts to bring down tension between states, form more constructive relations and reduce to the minimum [the] grounds for discrepancies in the area of security,” the statement said.

03:41

Xi and Putin deepen China-Russia partnership in Moscow talks, but no Ukraine peace deal details

Washington said it did not believe Russia was preparing to use the nuclear weapons.

In a statement, the US Defence Department said: “We have not seen any reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear posture … We remain committed to the collective defence of the Nato alliance.”

Putin blames the US-led military alliance for provoking the Russian attack on Ukraine.

The US has spent more than US$32.6 billion on weapons and other forms of military aid to Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on February 24 last year.

Ukraine says Russia ‘took Belarus as nuclear hostage’ by basing weapons there

Observers argued that Moscow’s plan might complicate Beijing’s efforts to broker peace in the Ukraine war, as highlighted by its 12-point peace proposal released in February, which calls for a gradual de-escalation and opposes the use of nuclear weapons.

Some said Russia’s move would worsen tensions between Moscow and the West, and make it more difficult to push for China-led peace talks ahead of French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s potential visit to Beijing next week.