MNI BRIEF: Joint EU/China Ukraine Declaration Unlikely: MEP

A joint declaration on the war in Ukraine at Friday’s EU-China summit is looking out of reach, thanks to continuing tense relations between Beijing and Brussels, says European Parliament MEP Iuliu Winkler.

Even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it had been expected that the summit would not achieve much in terms of EU-China rapprochement, according to Winkler, a member of the EP’s International Trade Committee and of the EP Delegation to the PRC. China imposed an unofficial trade embargo against Lithuania after the Baltic state hosted a Taiwanese representative office and it objected to EU moves to protect member states from economic coercion.

An EU official told MNI this week that the EU would make efforts to dissuade China from any support for Russian steps to avoid sanctions and seek its support for initiatives to end the war, but it looks unlikely to have much success.