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Officials in China have expressed displeasure with Russia’s actions in Ukraine, including Vladimir Putin’s failure to disclose his invasion plans, and condemned the “irresponsibility” of the proposed nuclear threats ahead of the G20 summit in Indonesia.
Mr Putin has not told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping “the truth,” the Financial Times reported, citing a Chinese official who said the two leaders had a “borderless” alliance between Moscow and Beijing when they met just 20 days earlier welcomes The Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine in February.
“If he had told us, we wouldn’t be in such an awkward position,” the official said.
Mr Xi was caught off guard by the invasion of Ukraine, which Russia still describes as a “special military operation,” according to four people briefed on the February meeting between the two leaders.
China deplores the fact that this secrecy by Moscow threatened the safety of thousands of Chinese nationals who were in Ukraine at the time the war broke out.
The official was quoted by the FT as saying that in Beijing, “More than 6,000 Chinese nationals were living in Ukraine and some of them died during the evacuation [although] we can’t do that publicly.”
The Russian president admitted last month that he had not informed his “close friend”, Mr Xi, of plans to invade Ukraine in February, but insisted the strength of their relationship was “unprecedented”.
Mr Putin will not be present at the world summit of G20 leaders in tropical Bali this week, instead he will be represented by his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
And Chinese Premier Li Keqiang also underscored the “irresponsibility” of nuclear threats when he addressed another summit in Cambodia on the eve of the G20 meeting. The comments are an indication that Beijing is unhappy with the nuclear rhetoric of its strategic partner Russia, a senior US official said on Monday.
Mr. Li attended the East Asia Summit on Sunday, where he “discussed China’s policy towards Ukraine at considerable length,” a senior US administration official said while briefing reporters ahead of a summit between Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi on Monday.
The senior Chinese official “clearly stressed the sovereignty, irresponsibility of nuclear threats, [and] the need to ensure that nuclear weapons are not used in the way some have suggested,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
Mr Putin last met his Chinese counterpart during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) leaders’ summit in Samarkand in September this year.
In the last eight months of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has been accused of making irresponsible statements about the possible use of nuclear weapons.
The US official said there was “undeniably some uneasiness in Beijing over what we have seen regarding reckless rhetoric and activities on the part of Russia,” despite a formal partnership with Moscow. “I think there’s also no denying that China is probably both surprised and a bit embarrassed at the conduct of Russian military operations,” the official said.
The G20 summit in Indonesia — one of the largest gatherings of leaders since the pandemic began — comes in the shadow of geopolitical tensions sparked by Ukraine’s eight-month-old war that has overturned trade in oil, natural gas and grains .
Topics for discussion include sustainable energy, a renewed focus on climate crisis policies, digital transformation and health.