Sun, Feb 06, 2022 page1

• US pans China over Russia summit

  ANTI-WESTERN PACT: The summit sent the message that China ‘might look the other way,’ even when Moscow ‘embarrasses’ Beijing, the US assistant state secretary said

  • AFP, MOSCOW
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  China should have used a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing on Friday to encourage Moscow to de-escalate tensions with Ukraine, as this would have been what the world expects from “responsible powers,” US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink said.

  Russia in a meeting earlier that day won China’s backing in its showdown with the West over Ukraine, as Beijing agreed with Moscow that the US-led NATO military alliance should not admit new members.

  The demand for NATO to stop expanding came after Putin and Xi hailed the two countries’ “dignified relationship.”

  

  US military equipment is unloaded from a plane in Wiesbaden, Germany, on Friday.

  Photo: Reuters

  In a long strategy document, Moscow and Beijing hit out at what they said was Washington’s destabilizing role in global security.

  “The parties oppose the further expansion of NATO and call on the North Atlantic Alliance to abandon the ideological approaches of the Cold War era,” the document read, urging respect for the “sovereignty, security and interests of other countries.”

  The call echoes demands from Russia that have been at the center of weeks of intensive negotiations between Moscow and the West, under the shadow of a potential conflict.

  Kritenbrink said that the meeting and joint statement reflected an approach that China and Russia had taken for some time, “namely to move closer together.”

  “The meeting should have provided China the opportunity to encourage Russia to pursue diplomacy and de-escalation in Ukraine,” Kritenbrink said.

  “If Russia further invades Ukraine and China looks the other way, it suggests that China is willing to tolerate or tacitly support Russia’s efforts to coerce Ukraine, even when they embarrass Beijing, harm European security and risk global peace and economic stability,” he said.

  The China-Russia agreement marked the most detailed and assertive statement of Russian and Chinese resolve to work together — and against the US — to build a new international order based on their own interpretations of human rights and democracy.

  They pledged mutual protection of core interests — an apparent reference to Taiwan, and Russia and Ukraine.

  The joint statement is also strongly critical of US moves to stand up to China’s growing power in the Indo-Pacific region through the AUKUS pact, under which the US and UK plan to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines.

  NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also hit back at Russia’s and China’s claims.

  “This is fundamentally not about NATO expansion. This is about respecting the right of every sovereign nation to choose their own path,” he told MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

  Western capitals have accused Russia of amassing about 100,000 troops on the borders of pro-Western Ukraine in preparation for an invasion and have vowed to impose devastating sanctions on Moscow if it attacks.

  Later on Friday, the first US soldiers of 3,000 troops announced by US President Joe Biden arrived in Germany at the Wiesbaden military base.

  The US is sending 2,000 troops stationed in the US. They are being flown to Germany and Poland, while another 1,000 already in Germany are being sent to Romania.

  French President Emmanuel Macron is to visit Moscow tomorrow and Kiev on Tuesday for talks with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts.
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