Restoring Peace: Focus Shifts to China After Zuppy and Biden Meeting

The visit to the USA of Matteo Zuppi, Messenger of the Holy Father, has come to an end. This visit was one of the stages of the peacekeeping mission after the visit to Kyiv on June 5 and 6 and to Moscow at the end of last month. An attempt will now be made to open the Chinese chapter.

In Washington DC, Cardinal Zuppi met with United States President Joseph R. Biden, who was handed a letter from the Holy Father, “emphasizing the pain of the Pope for the suffering caused by the war,” the Vatican press service said in a note. During the conversation, full readiness was assured to support humanitarian initiatives, especially in relation to children and the most vulnerable segments of the population, in order to both respond to this urgency and to advance the paths to peace.”

Given the impossibility of real peace negotiations at the moment, the goal is to build on some kind of “humanitarian outcome” in the hope of later taking more decisive steps that would lead to ending the conflict.

There will also be a rapprochement on the part of China, even if a direct visit seems problematic, considering the lack of official diplomatic relations with Beijing; besides, the Vatican is the only European state that has officially recognized Taiwan.