Turkey, China appear to be pursuing own negotiation platforms for settlement in Ukraine – ISW

Turkey and China appear to be pursuing their own negotiation platforms for a settlement in Ukraine.

The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said this in its latest report, according to Ukrinform.

As noted, Moscow will likely exploit to further its long-standing narratives regarding negotiations and the war.

“Turkey and China appear to be pursuing their own negotiation platforms for a settlement in Ukraine, which the Kremlin will likely exploit to further its long-standing narratives regarding negotiations and the war,” the report says.

Russia previously seized on China’s approach to a vaguely defined political peace plan for Ukraine to claim that China supports Russia’s war effort in Ukraine, as ISW previously reported.  Chinese Special Representative for Eurasian Affairs Li Hiu will visit EU states, Ukraine, and Russia starting on March 2 to conduct a round of shuttle diplomacy regarding a political solution to the war in Ukraine. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan similarly announced on February 28 that Ankara is prepared to provide another negotiations platform for Russia and Ukraine.

“The Kremlin will likely weaponize these proposed platforms to further the narrative that Ukraine is the party refusing negotiations. ISW continues to assess that the Kremlin is not interested in good-faith negotiations with Ukraine and has no interest in ending the war on anything but Russia’s articulated terms,” the report says.

As reported by Ukrinform, China is planning to send Li Hui, the government's special representative for Eurasia, to Ukraine, European countries and Russia for the second time to seek political solutions to the “Ukrainian crisis.”