The Chinese government on Monday denied considering supplying arms to Russia to support its offensive in Ukraine, accusing Washington of “throwing oil on the fire” by claiming the opposite.
A few days before February 24, a year after the start of the Russian invasion, Western pressure is mounting on China, which has never publicly supported or criticized the offensive, while repeatedly expressing its support for Moscow. in the face of Western sanctions.
After having affirmed it the day before, the American secretary of State Antony Blinken repeated Monday, before meeting the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to fear that China plans to supply weapons to Russia.
He repeated that he “shared these concerns” this weekend with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Munich, on the sidelines of the Munich security conference.
Statements were labeled as “false information” on Monday by Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry.
“We do not accept the United States pointing fingers at China-Russia relations, much less exerting pressure and coercion,” he said at a press briefing. regular.
“It is the United States and not China that is constantly sending weapons to the battlefield,” he added.
“Political Solution”
“The international community knows clearly who is calling for dialogue and fighting for peace, and who is adding fuel to the fire and encouraging the opposition,” he said, calling for support for a Chinese proposal to end at war.
On Saturday, China said it would make public in the coming days a proposal to find “a political solution” to the war in Ukraine.
For the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell, the delivery of arms by China to Russia would constitute a “red line” for the European Union.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi “told me they weren’t going to do it, they had no intention of doing it, but we will remain vigilant,” Borrell said. on Monday upon his arrival in Brussels for a meeting with European Union foreign ministers.
Caution
Antony Blinken therefore returned to the subject on Monday.
“Providing lethal support to Russia to aid in its war of aggression in Ukraine would have real consequences for our relations with China […]. This would pose a real problem for China in its relations with many other countries, not just the United States,” he warned.
“So we hope they won’t go down that road,” he concluded.
The American vice-president, Kamala Harris, present in Munich on Saturday, had also questioned the neutrality displayed by China.
The United States is “troubled by the fact that Beijing has deepened its relationship with Moscow since the beginning of the war”, she stressed.
“Any move by China to provide lethal support to Russia would only reward aggression, continue the killings and further undermine a rules-based order,” the vice president warned.
“We call on the United States to seriously reflect on its own actions and do more to calm the situation, promote peace and dialogue, stop blaming others and spreading false information,” the doorman said on Monday. -speaker of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“China’s position on the Ukraine file can be summed up in one sentence, which is to encourage peace and promote dialogue,” he insisted.