France and China Back Putin’s Call for Five-Power Summit

Jan. 24, 2020 (EIRNS)—China and France have welcomed President Vladimir Putin’s proposal for a summit of the heads of state and government of Russia, China, the United States, France and the United Kingdom—the five permanent members of the UN Security Council—to discuss how to secure global peace.

President Emmanuel Macron told the World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem yesterday: “Today, five permanent members of the UN Security Council bear historic responsibility. Dear Vladimir, I support your proposal to gather us all together. I would like us to achieve that, as we are the guarantors of world peace.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying likewise said today that “global instability and uncertainty are increasing, while multilateralism and the role of the United Nations are facing clear challenges. China supports Russia’s initiative to hold a summit of the UN Security Council permanent members,” and offers to coordinate activities towards it.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters today that Moscow will send messages to officials in the first half of next week “that will clarify the details” of the proposed summit.

Why hold it?

“In order to talk about the critical mass of challenges in various areas, about the potential for conflicts at the regional and international level, so that the five countries assume responsibility in order to prevent that critical mass from growing further,” Peskov said. The five leaders should “put themselves above those disagreements, which exist between these countries, in order to begin to search for ways of easing tensions and address the challenges facing all of humanity now.”

To the question whether the summit should be held, if any of the five refused to participate, Peskov answered that the participation of all countries was essential “to pool efforts to find solutions to the problems facing us. We cannot solve them alone,” TASS reported.

Peskov further said that the five nations invited were the founding members of the United Nations, which remains “the only universal, although not entirely perfect, platform in terms of answers to the challenges facing humanity.”