CNN published a piece on Monday provocatively declaring that “China praises Ukraine talks in Saudi that Russia said were ‘doomed to fail’”, which was intended to make the Jeddah talks a wedge issue in Chinese-Russian ties by falsely presenting Beijing’s participation in them as a slight against Moscow. Both members of the Sino-Russo Entente, which isn’t an “alliance” but rather an unprecedentedly close strategic partnership aimed at accelerating multipolarity, know better than to fall for this obvious ruse.
For starters, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov’s assessment was proven correct. He said that “[The meeting in Jeddah is] a reflection of the West’s attempt to continue futile, doomed to failure efforts to mobilize the international community, or more precisely, the global South, even if not entirely, to support the so-called Zelensky formula, which is doomed and unworkable from the outset.” It’s indeed the case that neutral Global South countries like China and India didn’t change their position.
At the same time, however, this doesn’t mean that the Jeddah talks didn’t have any positive aspects to them. As was explained here, they backfired on Zelensky by serving as an opportunity for the Chinese and Indian representatives to share their envisaged endgames to the NATO-Russian proxy war with the largest number of policymakers thus far. Those countries that sincerely want to end the conflict as soon as possible will naturally favor their proposed compromises over Kiev’s unrealistic maximalist demands.
Just like “India Showcased Its Neutrality At Last Weekend’s Western-Centric Peace Talks On Ukraine”, so too did China. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, their representative “had extensive contact and exchanges with participating parties, made clear China’s position and propositions, listened to the opinions and advice from various parties, and worked for more common understandings on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis. China’s positive role in promoting talks for peace was fully recognized.”
Far from being the wedge issue that the Mainstream Media and even some in the Alt-Media Community have spun the Jeddah talks as supposedly being for the participants’ ties with Russia, those neutral countries like China and India that took part in them actually strengthened ties with Russia as a result. They showed Moscow that they’ll not only hold firm to their positions under immense pressure, but will even push back against the West by sharing their own pragmatic solutions to this conflict with others.
Russia appreciates this outcome, which is why Ryabkov said that his country is eager to be briefed by its BRICS partners about their impressions from that event. The Kremlin of course felt uncomfortable that Saudi Arabia organized Western-centric peace talks without its participation for the purpose of promoting Zelensky’s so-called “peace formula”, but it was certainly reassured by China and India’s participation in them, which counteracted his propaganda and thus helped advance the cause of peace.
Those Asian Great Powers represent one-third of humanity and therefore command a lot of sway in shaping global opinion. Although they remain at odds over their disputed Himalayan border, they share the same goal of ending the NATO-Russian proxy war in Ukraine because its consequences complicated their respective grand strategies. This makes them both honest brokers, which is what the world needs, hence their participation in the Jeddah talks and why it’ll never become a wedge issue with Russia.
