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00:00Well, we do have Eunice Yun, who's going to give us some guidance as to what kind of role China might play here over the next few days.
00:06Morning, Eunice.
00:09Morning, Carl.
00:10Well, China's foreign ministry confirmed tonight that President Putin did speak on the phone with President Xi Jinping today,
00:17and that the two had discussed Ukraine, and President Putin had told President Xi that he's willing to have high-level negotiations with Ukraine.
00:28The ministry added that President Xi told Putin that he backed the Russian leader, resolving the issue through negotiations,
00:35and repeated China's long-held stance on the importance of respecting other countries' sovereignty.
00:41Now, up till now, China has shown support for Russia, refraining from calling the attack on Ukraine as an invasion.
00:49But it has also been indicating that it has a certain level of discomfort with Russia's move because it does breach China's long-held view,
01:00and what it says is important, is a key principle of their foreign policy, and that is non-interference in other states' sovereignty.
01:09Also, China has indicated it's uncomfortable with the level of uncertainty that that could bring to the economy here.
01:16Now, Carl, Jim, I thought your conversation about the idea of China playing a mediator role, really interesting,
01:23because for some historical context, China has offered to play mediator for a lot of other very difficult negotiations
01:32between the Israelis and the Palestinians, between the Afghan government and the Taliban,
01:37between India and Pakistan.
01:40And not all the countries have, or different parties, have ever taken China up on the offer,
01:46because it's not always seen as an honest broker.
01:49And it's unclear if, in this situation, Ukraine would take China up on that role if it were to come to pass.
01:57And, Carl, that's because, so far, China has really shown some tacit support for Russia.
02:04That said, Ukraine has China as a very important trading partner,
02:10and, in fact, the two just celebrated 30 years of diplomatic relations last month.
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