United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday said that China has not ‘crossed the line’ and provided Russia with substantial aid despite it ramping up diplomatic aid to Moscow. Blinken, who as per AFP, has for weeks warned that Beijing is considering Russia’s request for weapons for the Ukraine war said that “as we speak today, we have not seen them cross that line.” He said this in response to a question on whether China was providing “lethal aid” to Russia. Talking to lawmakers at a Senate committee, the top diplomat as per Reuters said that China was “very carefully” watching how Washington and the world respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Blinken said that if Russia was allowed to attack Ukraine with impunity, it would “open a Pandora’s box” for would-be aggressors and lead to a “world of conflict.”
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“The stakes in Ukraine go well beyond Ukraine. … I think it has a profound impact in Asia, for example,” he remarked.
Blinken’s statement comes on the heels of a high-level meeting between Russia and China. Recently, ‘dear friends’ Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin met in Moscow to discuss the bilateral relations between the two nations.
“I think their diplomatic support, their political support, and to some extent material support for Russia certainly goes against our interest in bringing this war to an end,” said Blinken when speaking about China.
Referring to the arrest warrant the International Criminal Court (ICC) has recently issued for the Russian President, Blinken said Washington would urge other nations to extradite Putin if he visits.
“I think that anyone who is a party to the court and has obligations should fulfil their obligations,” he said.
However, he added that given that the US is “not actually a party to the ICC”, he wants to avoid engaging in the hypothetical and that regards to Washington helping ICC extradite Putin, he would “have to look at the laws.” “I don’t think he (Putin) has any plans to travel here soon,” he added.
(With inputs from agencies)
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