The U.S. should be taking a leadership role in the diplomacy efforts to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, not China, retired U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt told Newsmax on Friday.
"The United States has not really been in any type of diplomatic mode here. We need to be very concerned because if China's going to come in, they have so many levers with their relationship with Russia to impose a solution on the Ukrainians. And now we see that they're assembling a team out of Beijing to come to Ukraine. This isn't going to be a happy conversation," Holt said during an appearance on Newsmax's "Carl Higbie FRONTLINE."
"This is going to be a conversation about, Here's why you're going to end your war, President Zelenskyy, and this is how it's going to look for you.
"It was a very high-risk endeavor for President Zelenskyy to reach out to [Chinese President] Xi Jinping, and I'm worried that we're going to now start to see Ukraine start to move into that orbit quite forcefully and us having spent all this money and treasure abdicating our diplomatic side where we should be actually taking a leadership role in the diplomacy effort."
Xi, who offered to help facilitate peace talks aimed at achieving a cease-fire between Ukraine and Russia as soon as possible, will send a delegation to Ukraine to hold talks with all parties on resolving the conflict there.
China remains Russia's top strategic ally in the midst of the conflict.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters the phone call was "a good thing," because "it's important for President Xi and [Chinese government] officials to avail themselves of the Ukrainian perspective on this illegal and unprovoked invasion by Russia." But it's unclear if it can lead to some sort of peace, he said.
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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