প্রকাশ: 14/03/2022
A U.S. official said Russia asked China for military
equipment to use in its invasion of Ukraine, a request that heightened tensions
about the ongoing war ahead of a Monday meeting in Rome between top aides for
the U.S. and Chinese governments.
In advance of the talks, White House national security
adviser Jake Sullivan bluntly warned China to avoid helping Russia evade
punishment from global sanctions that have hammered the Russian economy. “We
will not allow that to go forward,” he said.
The prospect of China offering Russia financial help is one
of several concerns for President Joe Biden. A U.S. official, speaking on
condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said that in recent days,
Russia had requested support from China, including military equipment, to press
forward in its ongoing war with Ukraine. The official did not provide details
on the scope of the request. The request was first reported by the Financial
Times and The Washington Post.
The Biden administration is also accusing China of spreading
Russian disinformation that could be a pretext for Russian President Vladimir
Putin’s forces to attack Ukraine with chemical or biological weapons.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put China in a delicate
spot with two of its biggest trading partners: The U.S. and European Union.
China needs access to those markets, yet it also has shown support for Moscow,
joining with Russia in declaring a friendship with “no limits.”
In his talks with senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang
Jiechi, Sullivan will indeed be looking for limits in what Beijing will do for
Moscow.
“I’m not going to sit
here publicly and brandish threats,” he told CNN in a round of Sunday news show
interviews. “But what I will tell you is we are communicating directly and
privately to Beijing that there absolutely will be consequences” if China helps
Russia “backfill” its losses from the sanctions.
“We will not allow that to go forward and allow there to be
a lifeline to Russia from these economic sanctions from any country anywhere in
the world,” he said.
In brief comments on the talks, Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokesperson Zhao Lijian did not mention Ukraine, saying that the “key issue of
this meeting is to implement the important consensus reached by the Chinese and
U.S. heads of state in their virtual summit in November last year.”
“They will exchange views on China-U.S. relations and
international and regional issues of common concern,” Zhao said in comments
posted on the ministry’s website late Sunday.
The White House said the talks will focus on the direct
impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine on regional and global security.
Biden administration officials say Beijing is spreading
false Russian claims that Ukraine was running chemical and biological weapons
labs with U.S. support. They say China is effectively providing cover if Russia
moves ahead with a biological or chemical weapons attack on Ukrainians.
When Russia starts accusing other countries of preparing to
launch biological or chemical attacks, Sullivan told NBC’s “Meet the Press,”
“it’s a good tell that they may be on the cusp of doing it themselves.”
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, on ABC’s “This Week,” said
“we haven’t seen anything that indicates some sort of imminent chemical or
biological attack right now, but we’re watching this very, very closely.”
The striking U.S. accusations about Russian disinformation
and Chinese complicity came after Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria
Zakharova alleged with no evidence that the U.S. was financing Ukrainian
chemical and biological weapons labs.
The Russian claim was echoed by Chinese foreign ministry
spokesman Zhao Lijian, who claimed there were 26 bio-labs and related
facilities in “which the U.S. Department of Defense has absolute control.” The
United Nations has said it has received no information backing up such
accusations.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki called the claims
“preposterous.”
There is growing concern inside the White House that China
is aligning itself with Russia on the Ukraine war in hopes it will advance
Beijing’s “vision of the world order” in the long term, according to a person
familiar with administration thinking. The person was not authorized to comment
publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Sullivan told “Face the Nation” on CBS that the Russian
rhetoric on chemical and biological warfare is “an indicator that, in fact, the
Russians are getting ready to do it and try and pin the blame elsewhere and
nobody should fall for that.”
The international community has assessed that Russia used
chemical weapons in attempts to assassinate Putin detractors such as Alexei
Navalny and former spy Sergei Skripal. Russia also supports the Assad
government in Syria, which has used chemical weapons against its people in a
decadelong civil war.
China has been one of few countries to avoid criticizing the
Russians for its invasion of Ukraine. China’s leader Xi Jinping hosted Putin
for the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, just three weeks before
Russia invaded on Feb. 24.
During Putin’s visit, the two leaders issued a 5,000-word
statement declaring limitless friendship.
The Chinese abstained on U.N. votes censuring Russia and has
criticized economic sanctions against Moscow. It has expressed its support for
peace talks and offered its services as a mediator, despite questions about its
neutrality and scant experience mediating international conflict.
But questions remain over how far Beijing will go to
alienate the West and put its own economy at risk. Sullivan said China and all
countries are on notice that they cannot “basically bail Russia out ... give
Russia a workaround to the sanctions,” with impunity.
Chinese officials have said Washington shouldn’t be able to
complain about Russia’s actions because the U.S. invaded Iraq under false
pretenses. The U.S. claimed to have evidence Saddam Hussein was stockpiling
weapons of mass destruction though none was ever found.
On CNN, Sullivan said the administration believes China knew
that Putin “was planning something” before the invasion of Ukraine. But he said
the Chinese government “may not have understood the full extent of it because
it’s very possible that Putin lied to them the same way that he lied to
Europeans and others.”
Sullivan and Yang last met for face-to-face talks in
Switzerland, where Sullivan raised the Biden administration’s concerns about
China’s military provocations against Taiwan, human rights abuses against
ethnic minorities and efforts to squelch pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong.
That meeting set the stage for a three-hour long virtual
meeting in November between Biden and Xi.
Sullivan is also to meet Luigi Mattiolo, diplomatic adviser
to Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, while in Rome.
প্রধান সম্পাদকঃ সৈয়দ বোরহান কবীর
ক্রিয়েটিভ মিডিয়া লিমিটেডের অঙ্গ প্রতিষ্ঠান
বার্তা এবং বাণিজ্যিক কার্যালয়ঃ ২/৩ , ব্লক - ডি , লালমাটিয়া , ঢাকা -১২০৭
নিবন্ধিত ঠিকানাঃ বাড়ি# ৪৩ (লেভেল-৫) , রোড#১৬ নতুন (পুরাতন ২৭) , ধানমন্ডি , ঢাকা- ১২০৯
ফোনঃ +৮৮-০২৯১২৩৬৭৭