China lacks credibility to mediate ceasefire in Ukraine: Stoltenberg in Tallinn

Visiting the Estonian capital of Tallinn, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday that China “doesn't have much credibility” to act as a mediator for a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia because it has “not been able to condemn the illegal invasion of Ukraine.”

The top NATO official went on to buttress his reserved assessment recalling Beijing had signed an agreement with Russia’s Vladimir Putin only days before the invasion.

For her part, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, also visiting Tallinn, said China “has already taken sides by signing, for example, an unlimited friendship right before the invasion.”

“So we will look at the principles, of course, but we will look at them against the backdrop that China has taken sides,” she added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday, he had not yet seen a Chinese plan for ending Russia's war on Ukraine but that he would welcome talks with Beijing. He responded to China’s claim that it will set out its position on settling the Ukraine conflict through political means in a document that will take into account territorial integrity,

sovereignty, and security concerns. Many analysts point out that China's effort to cast itself as a peacemaker on Ukraine contradicted its tightly-knit partnership with Russia.

Over the past weeks, concerns amongst Western allies, most notably the U.S. and under the NATO umbrella, have been emerging that China has been considering supplying arms to Russia. It remains doubtless that Chinese companies have helped Russia’s war effort so far in non-military ways.

As recently demonstrated by C4ADS, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the data-driven analysis and evidence-based reporting of conflict and security issues worldwide, Chinese state-owned conglomerates trade in sensitive technologies with Russia's defense sector, including companies involved in Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.