CHINESE President Xi Jinping is on his way to Moscow, on a “voyage of friendship, cooperation and peace”, weeks after Beijing unveiled a 12-point position paper, calling for a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war and days after it mediated a surprise rapprochement between longtime Middle East foes, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Xi’s three-day visit, which begins on Monday, will feature one-on-one talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a man the Chinese leader has described as his “best friend” and who is now wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes accusations.

The summit in Moscow will be the 40th meeting between the two men.

The visit by Xi – who was recently reappointed as China’s leader for an unprecedented third term and who is seeking a greater role for Beijing on the world stage – has raised hopes in some quarters of a breakthrough in ending the war in Ukraine. The conflict, now in its second year, has claimed tens of thousands of lives, forced millions from their homes, and caused widespread economic pain, with inflation soaring across the globe and goods such as grain, fertiliser, and energy in short supply.

The hopes have been kindled not only by Beijing’s mediation in the Saudi-Iran détente and its proposal for a truce and dialogue between Moscow and Kyiv, but also by media reports that Xi intends to follow on his summit with Putin with a virtual meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

If it takes place, the conversation will be Xi and Zelenskyy’s first since Russian tanks rolled across Ukraine’s border in February of last year.

However, most observers say Xi’s state visit is more about cementing the “no limits” partnership that he announced with Putin last year than about brokering peace in Ukraine. For starters, because neither of the warring parties appears ready or willing to end the fighting.

“Unless and until Russia and Ukraine have exhausted their will to continue fighting and are looking for off-ramps for this conflict, it is not possible to end it,” said Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. “And I don’t think that China wants to get in the middle of it.”

China’s 12-point paper on Ukraine, Glaser said, was a summary of its positions and not a “peace plan”, especially as it did not outline any specific area where Beijing was willing to play a more active role.

Indeed, the paper – unveiled on the anniversary of the war – reflects China’s ambiguous stance on the conflict. While the document supports Ukraine’s sovereignty and calls for the war’s swift resolution, it lays the blame for the crisis on what it calls a “Cold War mentality”, that is NATO’s expansion eastwards and the West’s disregard for Russia’s security concerns. It also condemns the West’s “unilateral sanctions” against Russia, despite Beijing mostly having adhered to the measures over the past year.

The paper contains a whole paragraph on the need for humanitarian assistance, but where is China in providing this aid?” Glaser said. “So, it’s not a peace plan and China is not playing the role of peacemaker.”

She went on to add that the Saudi-Iran agreement – which ended seven years of estrangement and challenged the US’s longstanding role as the main power broker in the Middle East – did not mean that China was now going to emerge as a major mediator for global disputes.