International > Russia and Ukraine
Afp / Efe
03/18/2022 | Washington, United States
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Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Friday that conflicts “do not benefit anyone” during a conversation with his American counterpart, Joe Biden, who has pressed Beijing to distance itself from Moscow since Russia invaded Ukraine.
“The Ukrainian crisis is not something we would have wanted” to happen, Xi was quoted as saying by Chinese television.
“As permanent members of the UN Security Council and as the world’s top two economies, it is incumbent on us not only to steer Sino-US relations on the right track, but to shoulder our international responsibilities and work for peace and tranquility in the world.” , said.
According to a brief summary released by the public channel CCTV, the Chinese president warned that “relations between states cannot reach armed confrontation.” “Conflicts and antagonisms do not benefit anyone. Peace and security are the goods that the international community should be most interested in.”
This meeting, the fourth since the 79-year-old Democrat became president of the United States, lasted almost two hours, according to the White House.
Biden spoke with Xi from the Situation Rooman ultra-secure room in the White House from where the United States conducts the most risky operations and the most difficult negotiations.
‘Implications’ for China if it helps Russia, says US
At the same meeting, Joe Biden warned his Chinese counterpart of the “implications and consequences” for China if it offers “material support” to Russia in the midst of its “brutal” attack on Ukraine, according to the White House.
The telematic meeting between the two leaders, the first they have held since last November, was focused on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and lasted about two hours, according to the official note.
Wendy Sherman, number two in US diplomacy, had previously explained on Friday in CNN Washington’s objective in the conversation: “We want the Chinese Communist Party, which is a very important power on the international scene (…) to understand that its future lies with the United States, with Europe, with other developed and developing countries His future is not to support Vladimir Putin.”
Some conciliatory statements, after others in a more threatening tone made Thursday by the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.
“We are concerned that they contemplate directly helping Russia with military equipment that would be used in Ukraine,” Blinken told reporters. The US said it would “make it clear that China will bear responsibility for any action taken to support Russian aggression and that we will not hesitate to impose costs on it.”
It is the clearest warning issued by the United States since the beginning of the Ukraine invasion, but it had already criticized China for its “alignment” with Russia.
For Joe Biden, the two superpowers compete economically and strategically, but they must dialogue so that this is not a factor of chaos at the international level. However, if China openly supports Russia, with arms deliveries or economic and financial agreements that allow it to partially circumvent harsh Western sanctions, its position would change.
“Boundless Friendship”
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24, the Chinese communist regime, which maintains a close relationship with Russia, with which it shares a deep hostility towards the United States, has refrained from asking Russian President Vladimir Putin to to withdraw its troops from Ukraine.
But the “unlimited friendship” professed by Beijing and Moscow is called into question by the offensive, and the government of President Xi Jinping seems surprised by the Ukrainian resistance and the harshness of the sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies to isolate Russia from world economic and financial exchanges.
Xi Jinping “must arbitrate between various priorities. He attaches great importance to the association with Russia, but does not want to undermine relations with the West”, on which China depends “for its access to certain advanced technologies”, he explains to the Afp Ryan Hass, an expert at the Brookings Research Institute and a former adviser to US President Barack Obama on China.
“The interests of China and Russia are not aligned. Putin wants to blow up the international system while President Xi sees himself as the architect of a new international order,” he adds.
Lee: US accuses Putin of ‘war crimes’ in Ukraine
Edition: Ana Ordaz
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