• Emmanuel Macron announced his visit on Saturday.
• Macron said peace was only possible if the Russian aggression was halted.
• Kazakhstan supports China’s Ukraine plan ahead of Blinken’s arrival.

PARIS – French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Saturday that he will visit China in early April and urged Beijing to “help us pressure Moscow” to resolve the Ukraine conflict.

Speaking a day after China called for urgent peace talks as it released its plan to end the war in Ukraine, Macron said peace was only possible if “the Russian aggression was halted, troops withdrawn and territorial sovereignty of Ukraine and its people was respected”.

Kazakhstan supports China’s Ukraine plan ahead of Blinken’s arrival.

On the day of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s travel to Kazakhstan, Russia’s ally Kazakhstan announced support for a Chinese plan to end the war in Ukraine.

Kazakhstan supports China’s Ukraine plan ahead of Blinken’s arrival.

On the day of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s travel to Kazakhstan, Russia’s ally Kazakhstan announced support for a Chinese plan to end the war in Ukraine.

Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry said it appreciated China’s stand “on the political settlement of the Ukraine conflict”.

In a statement, the ministry said the idea “deserves support as helping to the halt of killing”.

Kazakhstan, which shares a 7,500-kilometer (4,660-mile) border with Russia, emphasized the importance of “territorial integrity” in China’s strategy on Saturday.

Kazakhstan is a member of several military and economic alliances with Russia, but it has refused to support the attacks on Ukraine and has refused to recognize the Kremlin’s takeover of four Ukrainian territories.

Simultaneously, it has abstained from or voted against UN resolutions denouncing Russia.

Next week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan before heading to New Delhi for a G20 foreign ministers’ meeting, which Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will also attend.

Western officials have been skeptical of China’s 12-point statement calling for a “political settlement” to the situation, while Ukraine and Russia have indicated tentative support.

Timed to coincide with the first anniversary of Russia’s incursion on Friday, the paper asks all parties to “help Russia and Ukraine in moving in the same direction and resuming direct communication as early as possible”.

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