Abstract
The Chinese government has adopted a neutral stance in the Russia-Ukraine crisis, supporting political settlements to the conflict. Despite the war in Ukraine, the tensions between the USA and China remain unchanged, with the USA strengthening its Western alliances to deter China from supporting Russia. China maintains its balancing position with many developing countries, even though Russia seeks to draw China into its coalition. Since the start of the conflict, Europe has shifted its stance toward Russia, transitioning from conducting diplomatic mediation to providing military assistance to Ukraine. It is against this backdrop that this chapter argues that Europe should reconsider the construction of a pan-European security order and develop institutional arrangements that involve Russia. Additionally, Europe should exhibit strategic autonomy by mediating the Russia-Ukraine conflict, as France and Germany did 9 years ago when they established the diplomatic platform of the ‘Normandy Format’.
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Notes
- 1.
On April 26, 2022, the defense representatives of Japan, South Korea and some African and Middle Eastern countries attended the 40-country high-level military meeting on aid to Ukraine held at the US military base in Ramstein, Germany, and followed the US arrangement of military supplies to Ukraine. US and NATO intelligence support played an important role in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which prompted South Korea’s intelligence agency, the National Intelligence Service, to join NATO’s cyber warfare agency, the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence (CCDCOE) in Tallinn, Estonia), becoming the organization’s first Asian member. Japan also reached a ‘Reciprocal Access Agreement’ with the United Kingdom on May 5 (previously, Japan has signed similar agreements with the United States and Australia), according to which the two parties who have reached a consensus can jointly deploy military forces to carry out related training. Japan’s military intelligence cooperation with the United States is rapidly approaching the depth of the ‘Five Eyes’ alliance.
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Zhao, C. (2024). Russia and the War in Ukraine: The Chinese Perspective on Europe’s Role. In: Biba, S. (eds) Europe in an Era of US-China Strategic Rivalry. Global Power Shift. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48117-8_3
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