Emmanuel Macron to visit China after Beijing’s Ukraine peace plan

Kyiv: French President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday he would visit China in April, and urged Beijing to pressure Russia to end the war in Ukraine. China has sought to position itself as a neutral party on the conflict, even as it has maintained close ties with Russia and helped scuttle a joint statement condemning the war at a G20 gathering in India. It published a 12-point position paper on Friday that called for urgent peace talks and a "political settlement" to end the conflict. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday also expressed hopes to meet Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, calling…