The Pentagon warned today that there will be “consequences” for China to further deepen relations with Russia, after Russian President Vladimir Putin met on Tuesday in Moscow with the head of Chinese diplomacy, Wang Yi. .
The deputy spokeswoman for the US Department of Defense, Sabrina Singh, said at a press conference that so far it has not been seen that Beijing has delivered “military aid to Russia” for the war in Ukraine, but it is also something which is “out of the question”.
Sabrina Singh stressed that China risks committing a miscalculation if it continues to support Russia: “This is a war that Russia launched against Ukraine, almost a year ago, which will be completed at the end of this week, and certainly it would be a miscalculation for China” to provide “lethal aid to Russia”, he added.
On February 24th, a year ago, the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, a country that the US and Western allies are supporting with billions of dollars in military aid.
During his meeting with Wang on Tuesday, Putin emphasized that “cooperation on the international stage between the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation (…) is of great importance for the stability of the international situation.”
China has launched a peace proposal to end the conflict in Ukraine, which media reported would include defending territorial integrity, calling for an end to hostilities and protecting Ukraine’s nuclear facilities, and expressing opposition to the use of chemical weapons. .
The first reactions of some Western diplomats to Beijing’s proposal have been negative, due to the fact that it does not contemplate the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory, which they consider an essential condition for starting a peace process.
Until now, China has defended Ukraine’s territorial integrity, but has not condemned the Russian military operation, which it even justified by NATO expansion.
*With Lusa
