Ajit Karn
US Warns China
New Delhi: In a warning to China, the Secretary of the US State Department, Antony Blinken, said that China is thinking about giving weapons to Russia, which will change their relationship and have “consequences.”
At a press conference here, Mr. Blinken said, “Regarding China’s support for Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, we’ve said from the start, and this goes all the way back to the start of Russia’s aggression, that if China was providing lethal material support for Russia’s aggression or evading sanctions to help Russia, that would be a big problem for our countries.”
“When I met China’s top foreign policy official, Wang Yi, I told him about our worries about reports that China might sell weapons to Russia. I told him it would be bad for our relationship with China and that there would be consequences,” he said.
Blinken arrived in India on Wednesday evening and met with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. He also went to the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.
Mr. Jaishankar and Mr. Blinken looked at their relationships and talked about global issues.
During the press conference, Mr. Blinken also confirmed that he briefly spoke with Sergey Lavrov, who is the Russian foreign minister.
“I had a short conversation with Russian FM Lavrov today,” Mr. Blinken said at the G20 meeting in New Delhi.
“I asked Russia to change its irresponsible decision and get back to implementing New START, which puts limits on the US and Russian nuclear arsenals that can be checked. Both of our countries benefit from following the rules. As nuclear powers, this is also what people around the world expect from us “Mr Blinken added.
“I told the foreign minister that no matter what else is going on in the world or in our relationship, the United States will always be ready to talk and act on strategic arms control, just like the United States and the Soviet Union did even at the height of the Cold War,” he said.
The meeting was the first time the two foreign ministers had talked face-to-face since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine started more than a year ago and caused a rift between the US-led West and Russia.
He said that every country is still paying for Russia’s aggressive behaviour.
“Every country is still paying for Russia’s war of aggression, which President Putin could end tomorrow if he wanted to. We tried very hard to stop it, “said Mr Blinken in New Delhi.
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Mr. Blinken also said that Washington still backs Ukraine’s peace plan, which keeps the country’s borders the same.
He also said good things about Prime Minister Narendra Modi “PM Modi is right that the multilateral system faces problems. And in many ways, these problems come straight from Russia, which breaks the rules that make up the basis of this system.”
