By Simon Lewis
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -China and Brazil on Friday pressed ahead with an effort to gather developing countries behind a plan to end Russia's war in Ukraine, despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's dismissal of the initiative as serving Moscow's interests.
Seventeen countries attended a meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly chaired by China's foreign minister, Wang Yi, and Brazilian foreign policy adviser Celso Amorim.
Wang told reporters they discussed the need to prevent escalation in the war, avoid the use of weapons of mass destruction and prevent attacks on nuclear power plants.
"Russia and Ukraine are neighbors that cannot be moved away from each other and amity is the only realistic option," Wang said, adding that the international community should support a peace conference involving both Russia and Ukraine.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking later, after a meeting with Wang, underscored strong U.S. concerns about China's support for Russia's defense industrial base.
Addressing reporters, he said that China, while saying it seeks an end to the Ukraine conflict, "is allowing its companies to take actions that are actually helping Putin continue the aggression. That doesn't add up."
Separately, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the conflict in New York with his Brazilian counterpart, Maura Vieira, Lavrov's ministry said on its website.
As well as Brazil and China, 10 countries from the Global South that were present at the 17-nation meeting, including Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey, signed a communique that Amorim said builds on a six-point plan proposed by Brazil and China in May.
Countries would continue to meet in New York under a grouping of "friends for peace," he added.
Chinese President Xi Jinping signed a "no limits" partnership deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2022, less than three weeks before Russian troops entered Ukraine.
Beijing says it has not supplied Russia with weapons for use in Ukraine, but Western countries say its companies provide materials that Russia uses in the manufacture of weapons for the war.
Zelenskiy, in a speech to the assembly on Wednesday, questioned why China and Brazil were proposing an alternative to his own peace formula.
Proposing "alternatives, half-hearted settlement plans, so-called sets of principles" would only give Moscow the political space to continue the war, he said.
Asked about Zelenskiy's comment, Amorim told Reuters, "I'm not here to respond either to Zelenskiy or Putin, just to propose a way for peace."