China supports all Ukraine peace efforts, Gaza is not a 'bargaining chip', says Wang

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - China supports all efforts conducive to peace talks in Ukraine, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, and stressed that Gaza and the West Bank are "not a bargaining chip in political trade-offs."

After Russian and U.S. officials met in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday and agreed to press ahead with efforts to end the war in Ukraine, Wang told the Security Council: "China supports all efforts conducive to peace talks."

He said Beijing would continue to follow four points outlined by Chinese President Xi Jinping on what should be done.

China's official Xinhua news agency listed these as respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries; observance of the purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter; paying due regard to legitimate security concerns of all countries, and supporting efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of the crisis.

Wang chaired a meeting of the 15-member Security Council on multilateralism because China is president for February.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said that with regard to efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine, it was "becoming clear who genuinely advocates a more fair, more equal world, and who are living in the past and are striving at any cost to make their geopolitical agendas a reality."

"Any state claiming to act as a mediator in proposing peace initiatives must first and foremost, clearly understand what caused this conflict," Nebenzia told the Security Council.

He described the root cause of the conflict as a disregard for Russia's security interests and an aspiration to "inflict a geopolitical defeat on Russia," as well as failure by Ukraine's government to respect the rights of its entire population.

On the Middle East, Wang said it was vital to uphold the two-state solution. U.S. President Donald Trump caused outrage earlier this month when he proposed that the U.S. should take over the Gaza Strip and Gazans should be resettled elsewhere.

"Gaza and the West Bank are the homeland of the Palestinian people, not a bargaining chip in political trade-offs. The Palestinians governing Palestine is an important principle that must be followed in the post-conflict governance of Gaza," he said.

Wang told a press conference after the meeting that while most attention was currently being paid to Ukraine, other issues like Gaza must not be pushed to the side.

"We must realize that in our world today, there's not just the Ukraine issue. There are also many other hotspots, including the crisis in Gaza, which also require attention from the international community, and these issues must not be marginalized," he said.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom and Ryan Jones; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Hugh Lawson and Daniel Wallis)