The Biden administration could release information showing that China is considering giving Russia arms for the war in Ukraine.

It comes just before the United Nations Security Council meeting, which will mark a year after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Western officials, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, delivered a warning to Wang Yi, China’s top foreign policy official, in Munich over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported.

After the closed-door meetings, Blinken said in an interview with CBS News that China is seriously considering supplying arms to Russia.

Blinken will address the Security Council on Friday to mark the anniversary of the Ukraine war.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will address the Security Council on Friday to mark the anniversary of the Ukraine war. Pictured is Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba addressing the 11th special session of the General Assembly on Wednesday

After the closed-door meetings, Blinken said in an interview with CBS News that China is seriously considering supplying arms to Russia. Pictured is Russian President Vladimir Putin

Blinken will address the Security Council on Friday to mark the anniversary of the Ukraine war

The Security Council has held dozens of meetings on Ukraine over the past year and will discuss the war again at a ministerial meeting on Friday.

The General Assembly was at the center of UN action in Ukraine, with the 15-member Security Council paralyzed by the veto power of Russia and the United States, along with China, France and Britain.

Russia and China demonstrated their deepened ties on Wednesday at meetings where others watched for signs Beijing might offer the Kremlin stronger support for its war in Ukraine.

The visit of Wang Yi, the Chinese Communist Party’s top foreign policy official, to Moscow comes at a time when the conflict in Ukraine continues to upset the international diplomatic order.

Relations between Russia and the West are at their lowest post-Cold War levels, and China-US relations are also seriously strained.

Moscow this week suspended its participation in the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty with Washington. And the US expressed concern that China could supply arms and ammunition to Russia.

Opening talks with Wang, Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed relations between the two countries, adding that the Kremlin expects Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed relations between the two countries, adding that the Kremlin expects Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit Russia

Noting the escalating international tensions, the Russian leader, whose own rule over Russia is threatened by the war, added that “in this context, cooperation between the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation at the global level is particularly important for stabilization international situation.”

The Russian leader, whose own rule over Russia is threatened by the war, pointed to the escalating international tensions, adding that “in this context, cooperation between the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation at the global level is particularly important for the stabilization of the international situation is .’

While Wang said “Sino-Russian relations are not anti-third-country and certainly cannot be subjected to third-country pressure,” the specter of war and how it has stirred up the West and deepened its rift with Russia over his meeting with Putin lingered .

For example, Wang stressed that Moscow and Beijing both support “multipolarity and democratization of international relations” — a nod to their shared goal of countering perceived US dominance in global affairs.

Earlier on Wednesday, Wang held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “Our relations are dynamically developing, and despite the great turbulence on the global arena, we have shown readiness to speak in defense of each other’s interests,” Lavrov said.

Wang responded in kind, emphasizing Beijing’s focus on deepening ties with Russia — a relationship it said is “borderless.”

Chinese Communist Party foreign policy chief Wang Yi speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, February 22, 2023. (Anton Novoderezhkin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Putin greets Chinese Communist Party foreign policy chief Wang Yi during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia on Wednesday

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks back to a camera with Chinese Communist Party foreign policy chief Wang Yi during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, February 22, 2023. (Anton Novoderezhkin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

China has explicitly refused to criticize the invasion of Ukraine while repeating Moscow’s claim that the US and NATO were responsible for provoking the Kremlin. The government in Beijing also blew up the sanctions imposed on Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.

Russia, in turn, has been staunchly supportive of China amid tensions with the US over Taiwan.

The two nations have held military drills to demonstrate their defensive ties. China, Russia and South Africa are conducting naval exercises in the Indian Ocean this week.

A Russian frigate, the Admiral Gorshkov, arrived in Cape Town in recent days bearing the letters Z and V on its sides, letters denoting Russian weapons on the front lines in Ukraine and used as a patriotic symbol in Russia.

The rapprochement worries the West. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said any Chinese involvement in the Kremlin’s war effort was a “serious problem”.

Asked Wednesday whether NATO has any signs China might provide arms or other support to Russia’s war, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also told The Associated Press in Warsaw, Poland:

“We’ve seen some signs that they may be planning to do this and of course the NATO ally, the United States, has warned against it because this is something that shouldn’t be happening. China should not support Russia’s illegal war.’

Stoltenberg said potential Chinese aid would amount to “(direct) support for a blatant violation of international law, and of course China (as) a member of the UN Security Council should in no way support a violation of the UN Charter or the International.” Law.’

Government-backed scholars in China shrugged off Washington’s warnings about Beijing’s relationship with Moscow as reflecting what they called a polarizing and distorted US view.

The Global Times quoted Zhang Hong, associate research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies, as saying the US and its allies viewed the Russia-Ukraine conflict through “colored glasses.” considered. ‘

“It seems like anyone who speaks to Russia is siding with Moscow in the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” the English-language Chinese newspaper quoted Zhang as saying.

Servicemen carry the coffin of 20-year-old soldier Vladyslav Belechynskyi during a funeral at a cemetery in Lviv, western Ukraine, Wednesday February 22, 2023. Belechynskyi died on February 16 near Bakhmut. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Mother Tetiana and brother Vlad mourn Wednesday, February 22, 2023 during the funeral of 20-year-old soldier Vladyslav Belechynskyi at Lviv Cemetery. Belechynskyi died near Bakhmut on February 16. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Wang’s talks with Lavrov followed Tuesday’s meeting with Nikolai Patrushev, the powerful secretary of Russia’s National Security Council, who called for closer cooperation with Beijing to counter Western efforts to maintain dominance by thwarting a China-Russia alliance.

While China has recently stressed its close ties with Moscow, it also needs to tread carefully to avoid escalating tensions with the West as it seeks to boost its economy in the wake of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Isolation from the West is not something (Beijing) wants to risk,” said Yu Jie, a senior research fellow on China in the Asia-Pacific program at Chatham House, a British think tank, in an op-ed published on Wednesday. “President Xi and his colleagues have begun to recognize that cooperation with Russia has significant limitations to avoid undermining China’s own political priorities and longer-term economic interests.”

Wang’s trip to Moscow came against a backdrop of bitter fighting in Ukraine, with neither side appearing to be gaining momentum. The Presidential Office of Ukraine said at least seven civilians were killed between Tuesday and Wednesday morning.

Speaking at a patriotic concert on Wednesday, Putin saluted Russia’s “heroic” troops and claimed Moscow’s armed forces will fight for the country’s “historic borders” to protect its “interests, people, culture, language and territory.”

“When we stand together, we are unique,” he called out to the excited crowd at a Moscow sports arena.

The growing relationship between China and Russia is another example of how the war could spread into dangerous new territory.

Another reason was Putin’s announcement Tuesday that Russia would suspend its participation in the new START treaty, raising fresh concerns about the fate of the arms pact that was already alive.

Last fall Moscow decided to allow US inspections of its nuclear facilities to resume, but refused to hold a planned round of consultations under the pact.

Russia’s lower house of parliament on Wednesday quickly endorsed Putin’s move to suspend the treaty, with officials and lawmakers passing it off as an 11-hour warning to Washington.

Echoing Beijing’s cautious stance, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the treaty is the key to peace and stability and China hopes “the two sides will settle their differences properly.”

A mysterious iron ball nearly 5 feet wide was found on a beach in Hamamatsu City, Japan this week. Officials scrambled to make sure the giant ball wasn’t a bomb, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK, which released video of police examining it.

The ball is not a bomb, officials said – but its origin is still unknown. The peculiar sphere, which is hollow and sand-colored, has stunned locals and social media users.

A mysterious metal ball discovered on a beach in Hamamatsu City this week prompted local police to alert the bomb squad. A careful investigation revealed that it was not a threat – but shed no light on what it actually is. pic.twitter.com/ytClWsP0bw

— NHK WORLD News (@NHKWORLD_News) February 21, 2023

Click here to view related media.

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According to NHK, the ball was first spotted by a local resident. Police cordoned off the beach as they examined and X-rayed the object, believing it to be safe. It will soon be removed from the beach, local authorities said.

A local man told NHK he came to the beach for a jog and was surprised by all the attention the ball was getting, saying he had been there for a month. “I tried to push it but it didn’t move.”

CBS News has reached out to officials in Shizuoka Prefecture, where Hamamatsu City is located, and is awaiting a response.

Suspicious objects sighted around the world have made headlines in the past few days – especially so-called “spy balloons” from China. A balloon sighted over Montana earlier this month raised concern as the U.S. government tracked its path across the United States. The balloon was shot down off the coast of South Carolina and recovered in the Atlantic Ocean.

More balloons were sighted on five continents, and the Pentagon said the balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina was part of a “larger Chinese surveillance balloon program” that has been running for several years.

China says the balloon is a weather device that has gone off course.

While the ball that surfaced on the beach in Japan isn’t a floating balloon, it comes at a time of heightened concerns about unidentified objects.

China and Japan also held security talks on Wednesday – the first in four years, according to BBC News. Japan expressed concern to China about the balloons that have surfaced over Japan since 2019.

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Caitlin O’Kane

Caitlin O’Kane is a digital content producer who reports trending stories for CBS News and its good news brand, The Uplift.

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Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, historically neutral European countries have embarked on an unprecedented shift: if Switzerland has followed in the footsteps of the European Union and imposed sanctions on Russia, Sweden and Finland went even further by they applied to join NATO.

For Max Bergmann, director of the Europe program at the Washington-based Center for International and Strategic Studies (CSIS), the war in Ukraine has thus “confronted the concept of neutrality itself and the way countries are neutral in the current circumstances may be called into question”.

France 24 takes stock of the history and evolution of the neutrality policies of some European countries, which were put to the test by the war in Ukraine.

• Finland and Sweden

Finland, which shares nearly 830 miles (1,340 km) of border with Russia, has long opted to remain neutral so as not to “anger or provoke” its powerful neighbor, according to Andrew Cottey of University College Cork. In 1948, for example, the country signed a peace agreement with the Soviet Union in which, in the preamble, it “reaffirmed its desire to remain outside the conflicting interests of the great powers”. This treaty, which Finland withdrew from after the fall of the USSR, forbade it from joining a military alliance against Moscow and allowing an attack on the USSR from its soil.

Thus, during the Cold War, Finland “always had to consider the impact that any of its political acts might have on its relations with the Soviet Union,” notes Jacob Westberg, associate professor of war studies at the Swedish Defense University.

For its part, Sweden owes its neutrality to a long tradition that began in 1815 and continued through World War II and the Cold War. But this was called into question in 2007 when Sweden signed the Lisbon Treaty: Article 42.7 of the text stipulates that the member states of the European Union owe each other assistance in the event of an attack.

In 2009, Stockholm also signed a declaration of solidarity with NATO, which has since laid the foundations for its security policy. This declaration states that Sweden “will not stand idly by when another European Union member state or Nordic country is attacked or affected by a disaster. We expect these countries to take similar action when Sweden is affected.” Finally, in 2011, Sweden adopted a declaration of solidarity with its Nordic neighbors – Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland – reiterating that “if one Nordic country is affected, the others share it will help with appropriate means upon request”.

This incipient rapprochement between Finland, Sweden and NATO accelerated significantly in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea. The two countries then sign a support agreement with the Atlantic Alliance, which according to Jacob Westberg represents “the first step in Finland and Sweden’s rapprochement with NATO” in terms of defence. Both countries are also increasing defense spending and arming themselves to combat Russian disinformation.

The invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 will play a catalytic role. Public opinion then refused to take “an ambiguous position” on the “potential threat of a Russian invasion,” according to Max Bergmann. The two countries are calling for NATO accession in May 2022 to benefit from the mutual protection promised in Article 5.

Since the Russian invasion, Sweden has provided more than $475 million in military aid to Ukraine, approving its tenth shipment worth $406 million on February 8. Finland is not to be outdone and has given Kyiv almost 590 million euros in military aid.

Switzerland prides itself on having the world’s oldest policy of neutrality, Jacob Westberg recalls, and even has it enshrined in its constitution.

The return of war in Europe has prompted it to increase its military budget, set at at least 1% of GDP for 2030, from 0.67% in 2019, and has also stirred public opinion. According to a recent survey, 55% of the Swiss are willing to approve the currently banned re-export of Swiss weapons to Ukraine. The leader of the Liberal-Radical Party (FDP, centre-right) submitted a motion to the government on February 6 to change the country’s neutrality policy, and parliament is also interested in the issue.

Austria is bound by the Austrian State Treaty of 1955 and by its constitution to neutrality, which prevents it from forming military alliances or maintaining foreign military bases on its soil. Nevertheless, Vienna has pledged more than 580 million euros to Ukraine, mainly in the form of humanitarian aid, and has taken in more than 50,000 refugees.

“If we are militarily neutral according to our constitution and legal provisions,” stressed Austrian Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner, we are certainly not politically neutral towards Ukraine. That is why we have supported all the sanctions imposed by the European Union from the start.”

Despite this political support for Ukraine, Austria is still trying to maintain good relations with Russia. On February 28, 2022, less than a week after the invasion began, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer offered to host peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in Vienna. And ever since the government announced it would allow Russian parliamentarians, under European sanctions, to attend an OSCE meeting in Vienna on February 23-24, the country has come under fire from its European allies.

Dublin adopts its policy of neutrality at the start of World War II. Ireland is not taking part in the war effort, despite appeals from the British and Americans. In 1949 it also refused to join NATO, stating that it did not want to join any alliance of which the United Kingdom was a member.

Irish neutrality “primarily relates to the struggle for independence from the United Kingdom and contains important elements of anti-imperialism and anti-militarism,” analyzes University College Cork’s Andrew Cottey.

Immediately after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, however, Ireland gave strong support to Kiev, and then-Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin summed up his country’s position: “Ireland’s official policy is to be militarily non-aligned. aligned.”

While the majority of Irish want to remain militarily neutral, the country has paid around 55 million euros in the form of “non-lethal military aid” to Kiev, such as body armor or medical care for Ukrainian soldiers. Ireland has also taken in more than 62,000 refugees, a significant number given its 5 million population.

Aware that the country should no longer be “totally dependent on the protection of the United States and the United Kingdom”, the government has also announced the largest military budget increase in Irish history, according to Max Bergmann.

The war in Ukraine has thus brought security back to the forefront of European concerns. Fear of a conflict escalating beyond Ukraine’s borders have forced the traditionally neutral countries to reconsider their position.

This article has been adapted from its original English version.