No winners in conflict, no losers in peace

In a social media post on Friday, US President Donald Trump said he is “strongly considering” levying new sanctions and tariffs on Russia.

Considering that he issued the same warning shortly after he took office in January before making public the United States’ about-face in its stance on the Ukraine crisis, Trump’s repetition of the same old warning should serve to reflect new pressure has been quickly building on his shoulder after his dramatic showdown with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington on Feb 28.

After Trump’s post, Kevin Hassett, director of the US National Economic Council, told reporters that “President Trump is adamant that we need to get everybody to the table, and we could do that with carrots, and we could do that with sticks”.

But Trump’s post came after the European Union leaders, the day before, showed their firm commitment to working together to bolster the bloc’s defenses and to free up hundreds of billions of euros for security.

It is the US leader’s repeated warnings that he would cut them adrift to face the threat of Russia alone and the US’ decision to not provide new military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine that has prompted the EU leaders to speak in almost one voice, except the opposition of Hungary, in support of the bloc’s self-reliance on security.

That means the EU and Ukraine have dug their heels in instead of succumbing to the US administration’s pressure that they have no choice but to accept a deal it struck with Russia to end the conflict in Ukraine.

“It may be easier dealing with Russia, which is surprising, because they have all the cards,” Trump said. Thus the US president’s warning to Moscow can be seen as a stress reaction of the administration to some extent.

After more than three years of sanctions imposed on Russia by the previous US administration, the Trump administration has few cards to play on that front. Russia’s exports of goods to the US were a relatively negligible $3 billion last year — with fertilizers accounting for nearly half the volume — in contrast with the US’ $3.3 trillion goods imports that year, leaving little space for the US to wield its tariff baton.

To ease the mounting pressure, Trump is sending Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz and special envoy Steve Witkoff to Saudi Arabia this week to meet with Ukrainian officials.

The whole crisis over the past more than three years and the detour of the peace process due to Washington being intent on looting a burning house only serve to highlight China’s constant stance on the issue. China has advocated dialogue and negotiation and sought a political solution since the first day of the crisis, and has been working for peace and promoting talks ever since.

China welcomes and supports all efforts committed to peace. At the same time, all parties must also see that the root causes of this crisis are complex and intricate, so the peace process can also be long and complicated. As Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a news conference on Friday, “There can be no winners in the conflict, and there will be no losers in the peace”.

Relevant parties should therefore put aside their own immediate interest, and advocate and practice a new security concept of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security.

[Abridged]