In an interview with the Italian state-owned news channel TG2, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See’s Secretary of State, said that he believes that the 2018 agreement with China, renewed in 2020 for two years, will again be renewed.

Cardinal Parolin also said that any meeting between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill must be well prepared and that the Pope wishes to visit Ukraine “when conditions are right and when such a visit could contribute to the cause of peace and not simply be a photo opportunity.” The prelate also affirmed the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s teaching on defensive war.