Polish president says he hopes China can help bring peace in Ukraine

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Poland's President Andrzej Duda review the honour guard during the welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on June 24, 2024. Pedro Pardo/Pool via REUTERS

WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Monday during a visit to Beijing that he hoped China would help find a solution for peace in Ukraine that respects international law.

China did not attend a Ukraine peace summit organised in Switzerland this month, saying it did not meet its expectations that included both Russia and Ukraine taking part. Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, was not invited and denounced the gathering as a sham.

Diplomats told Reuters this month that China had been lobbying governments with an alternative peace plan for Ukraine.

"I presented our point of view on the security situation in Europe and the world, above all in our part of Europe," Duda told reporters after a meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

"I hope that China will... support efforts to strive for a peaceful end to the war waged by Russia in Ukraine," he said, adding that any such peace must respect international law and Ukraine's internationally recognised borders.

China and Russia proclaimed a "no limits" partnership just days before President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Russia's smaller neighbour. Beijing says it is neutral in the conflict and has not supplied Moscow with weapons or ammunition.

Xi told Duda that China supported all efforts to bring the war in Ukraine to a peaceful end and that China would continue to play a role in finding a political solution to the crisis, Chinese state television reported.

(Reporting by Alan Charlish and Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk in Warsaw, Ella Cao in Beijing; editing by Mark Heinrich)