When asked what role China could play in ending the Russia–Ukraine war, the Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, replied that his country had played no role in initiating the conflict and that those directly involved should consider how to end it, taking into account the concerns of all parties. Conspicuously, official representatives of the Russian government did not attend the 2026 Munich Security Conference (MSC), where Wang Yi insisted on “harmony without uniformity”, a phrase from Confucian philosophy in the context of the future relationship between China and Europe.

The absence of Russia from the MSC indicated not only exclusion but also Europe’s unwillingness to engage Moscow in political dialogue to end the war. Conversely, the “Coalition of the Willing”, proposed by the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and supported by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, suggested that Europe seeks to end the war not through dialogue but by defeating Russia on the battlefield.

A second layer of irony is added by the growing disarray between Europe and the United States over Greenland and the future of NATO. If this transatlantic alliance were to fracture, could the Coalition of the Willing defeat Russia alone? And, thirdly, if NATO’s future appears uncertain, the question of Ukraine joining the Alliance becomes increasingly irrelevant, and the pretext for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, together with the European hue and cry, begins to look like much ado about........

© The Friday Times