Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Chinese President Xi Jinping had vowed not to provide weapons to Russia in the event of a war between Russia and Ukraine.
“I had a phone call with the Chinese leader and he said we will not sell any weapons to Russia. Let’s see,” Zelensky said at a news conference with President Joe Biden at the Group of Seven summit in Italy on Thursday, without elaborating when the talks took place. “He gave me assurances.”
Beijing and Moscow maintained close ties throughout Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine, declaring “unrestricted” cooperation in February 2022, just days before the start of the war. China has not publicly criticized Russian President Putin’s decision to invade Eastern European countries and has maintained a neutral stance regarding the war.
“By the way, China is not supplying weapons, they’re supplying the capability to produce weapons and the technology needed to do so. So China is actually assisting Russia,” Biden added Thursday, after Zelensky’s speech finished.
Newsweek The Russian and Chinese foreign ministries were contacted by email seeking comment.
The United States warned its allies in April that China was providing satellite imagery to help Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military wage war.
“China is providing Russia with satellite imagery for military purposes as well as microelectronics and machine tools for tanks, in a sign of continuing military integration between the two countries, people familiar with the matter said,” Bloomberg reported on April 7, citing anonymous sources.
During a visit to China in early April, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng that Chinese companies would face “serious consequences” if they supported Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“Secretary Yellen said that companies, including China, [People’s Republic of China]”We must not provide material support for Russia’s war against Ukraine or the consequences will be severe,” the Treasury Department said on its website.
Alexander Ryumin/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
In February, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, chairman of China’s Communist Party’s Foreign Affairs Commission, told Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba that China was not supplying weapons to Russia in a war.
Wang said China’s position on the conflict is “to adhere to political resolution of issues in disputed areas, advocate promoting peace and encouraging dialogue, not add fuel to the fire, not take advantage of opportunities, and not sell lethal weapons to disputed areas or parties to conflicts.”
Xi is Putin’s closest and main ally. In an interview with Chinese state media in October, the Russian president said, “Putin calls me a friend and I call him a friend.”
“There’s a saying: ‘Tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are,'” the Russian president added. “So if I were to praise President Xi Jinping now, I would somehow feel uncomfortable. It would be like I was praising myself. So I’m going to try to remain objective.”
Putin described Xi as “one of the recognized world leaders” who “does not make spur-of-the-moment decisions based on current circumstances, but assesses and analyzes the situation and looks to the future.”
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