- Kremlin tells China’s Wang to visit Moscow
- Putin meeting not ruled out, says Kremlin
- China prepares proposal to settle Ukraine – China
- Beijing to US: Stay Out of Sino-Russian Relations
MOSCOW/BEJING, Feb 20 (Portal) – China’s top diplomat is set to visit Moscow shortly and may even meet President Vladimir Putin amid US fears Beijing is considering supplying arms to Russia.
Chinese arms sales to Russia would risk a potential escalation of the Ukraine war into a confrontation between Russia and China on the one hand and Ukraine and the US-led NATO military alliance on the other.
After China’s top diplomat Wang Yi disputed the launching of balloons over the United States, he accused the United States of violating international norms with “hysterical” behavior.
Suggesting that European countries “calmly think about” how to end the war, Wang said Beijing will put forward “China’s position on the political solution to the Ukraine crisis.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed Wang’s planned visit to Moscow, but did not give a date for the trip.
last update
Watch 2 more stories
“We do not rule out a meeting between Mr. Wang and the President (Putin),” Peskov told reporters. “The agenda is clear and very extensive, so there is a lot to talk about.”
A diplomatic source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, previously told Portal that Wang is expected in Moscow shortly and will discuss Chinese ideas for a political solution to the Ukraine conflict, as well as bilateral matters.
Wang said in Budapest on Monday China stands ready to work with Hungary and other countries to end hostilities.
Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine sparked one of the deadliest European conflicts since World War II and the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has stood by Putin and resisted Western pressure to isolate Russia. Sino-Russian trade has skyrocketed since invading Ukraine, and Russia has sold more oil to Asian powers, including China.
PUTIN AND XI
The United States cites China and Russia as the top two nation-state threats to its security. China is viewed by Washington as the most serious long-term “strategic competitor” and Russia as an “imminent threat”.
Putin and Xi share a broad worldview that sees the West as decadent and in decline, while China challenges US supremacy in everything from technology to espionage to military might.
China has failed to condemn Moscow’s operation against Ukraine or call it an “invasion” in line with the Kremlin, which has described the war as a “special military operation” to protect Russia’s own security.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday warned Wang Yi of the consequences of China providing material support to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
China hit back at the United States on Monday.
“The United States is in no position to make demands on China,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular daily briefing in Beijing when asked about Blinken’s comments.
“China’s comprehensive cooperative partnership with Russia is based on non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-targeting of third parties, and is a matter within the sovereignty of two independent countries,” Wang Wenbin said.
When Putin and Xi met face-to-face just before the start of the Ukraine conflict, the two leaders sealed a “borderless” partnership between China and Russia that sparked concern in the West.
“We will never accept the US pointing fingers at Sino-Russian relations or even pressuring us,” Wang Wenbin said at the Beijing briefing.
Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow and Joe Cash in Beijing; Edited by Nick Macfie and Gareth Jones
Our standards: The Thomson Portal Trust Principles.