Europe and China must talk about ways to end Ukraine war: ex-French ambassador

A former French diplomat has urged Europe and China to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine, describing the issue as “the major challenge” facing the two sides.

“The Ukraine war is fracturing the dialogue between two parts of the world,” Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, France’s ambassador to China between 2014 and 2017, said in an interview.

“It shouldn’t prevent us from having a stronger dialogue with China and finding out ways and means to cooperate as we did in the past, to find out shared interests and common ground to work together,” said Gourdault-Montagne, who also served as ambassador to Japan, Germany and Britain.

“The major challenge at the moment is to get rid of this question of Ukraine. We need peace in Ukraine.”

He added that a 12-point peace proposal Beijing put forward two years ago could provide some basis for talks, despite European perceptions that Beijing was siding with Moscow.

“We can’t do anything about [China’s relationship with Russia],” he said.