Vatican talks to China in continued Russia-Ukraine peace efforts

Vatican peace envoy Cardinal Matteo Zuppi spoke Aug. 14, 2024, with Li Hui, China’s special representative for Eurasian affairs, about the Russia-Ukraine war. The phone conversation was the most recent step in the Vatican’s continued diplomatic efforts to promote lasting peace in the region. / Credit: Roberto Serra – Iguana Press/Getty Images; JADE GAO/AFP via Getty Images

Rome Newsroom, Aug 16, 2024 / 09:27 am (CNA).

Vatican peace envoy Cardinal Matteo Zuppi spoke this week with a Chinese government official about the Russia-Ukraine war.

The phone conversation was the most recent step in the Vatican’s continued diplomatic efforts to promote lasting peace in the region.

Zuppi’s Aug. 14 phone call with Li Hui, China’s special representative for Eurasian affairs, followed a meeting between the two in Beijing in September 2023, one of several diplomatic visits the papal delegate has taken to advance peace between Russia and Ukraine.

The cardinal has also traveled to Kyiv, Ukraine; Moscow; and Washington, D.C., as part of his remit as peace envoy.

According to a brief statement from the Vatican on Thursday, Zuppi’s conversation with Hui included a discussion of “the need to foster dialogue” and “adequate international guarantees for a just and lasting peace.”

Hui began his role as the Chinese government’s special representative for Eurasian affairs in August 2019 after 10 years as the Chinese ambassador to Russia following a stint as vice minister of foreign affairs.

The special representative is highly regarded in Russia, where he was awarded an Order of Friendship by Russian President Vladimir Putin in May 2019. The career diplomat also worked in the Chinese Embassy in the U.S.S.R. in the 1980s, later serving as first secretary of the Chinese Embassy during the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

On other diplomatic fronts, the Catholic Church is also in dialogue with China as it continues to work for improvements to the application of the provisional agreement on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China. The Vatican-China deal, the contents of which are not public, was first signed in 2018 and will be up for its third renewal in October. 

A joint commission between the Chinese government and the Holy See, presided over by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, meets twice per year to discuss bishop appointments in the communist country, where there is both a government-sanctioned Catholic association and an underground Catholic Church.

Pope Francis has also recently expressed a desire to visit China in order to meet with bishops and Catholics in the country.

In an interview at the Vatican conducted in May and published Aug. 9, the pope said he would really like to one day visit the Basilica of Holy Mary, the Help of Christians, in Shanghai, China.