China pressuring other nations not to attend Ukraine peace talks: Zelenskyy

Singapore, June 2

President of Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused China of helping Russia to disrupt a Swiss-organised peace conference on the war in Ukraine, speaking at Asia’s premier security conference on Sunday.

In a news conference at the Shangri-La defense forum in Singapore, Zelenskyy said that China is pressuring other countries and their leaders not to attend the upcoming talks.

“Russia, using Chinese influence in the region, using Chinese diplomats also, does everything to disrupt the peace summit,” he said, according to a simultaneous translation of his remarks. “Regrettably this is unfortunate that such a big independent powerful country as China is an instrument in hands of Putin.” In a speech earlier in the day, Zelenskyy urged top defence officials to attend the upcoming summit, saying he was disappointed at the failure of some countries to commit to joining.

Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun spoke earlier in the day at the Shangri-La conference but he did not appear to be in the room when Zelenskyy made his appeal. — AP

US building NATO’s Asia-Pacific version: China

Singapore: The US is trying to build an Asia-Pacific version of NATO through its Indo-Pacific strategy to maintain its hegemony in the region, a Chinese defence official has said, stressing that Washington’s attempt to serve its “selfish” geopolitical interest is “doomed to fail”. Lieutenant General Jing Jianfeng, deputy chief of staff of the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission, warned that if regional countries were to sign up for the US’ Indo-Pacific strategy, they would be bound to the “US war chariot”.