Possible help from the Chinese would be an important development in the Russian invasion, and could destroy the hold that Ukrainian forces still have in the country.
When asked by DailyExpertNews about coverage of Russia’s request for military aid, Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese embassy in the US, said in a statement: “I’ve never heard of that.”
Liu expressed concern about “the situation in Ukraine” – calling it “worrying indeed” – and said China has and will continue to provide humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Liu said, “The top priority now is to prevent the tense situation from escalating or even spiraling out of control. … China is calling for extreme restraint and avoiding a massive humanitarian crisis.”
The Russian embassy in the US did not immediately respond to DailyExpertNews’s request for comment.
Sullivan told Dana Bash on DailyExpertNews’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that giving China support to Russia is a “concern.”
“We are also closely monitoring the extent to which China is actually providing any kind of aid, material or economic aid to Russia. It is a concern of ours. And we have informed Beijing that we will not stand by and allow any country to compensating Russia for its losses from the economic sanctions,” Sullivan said.
Local authorities say 35 people were killed and 134 injured at the military base in what Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov described as a “terrorist attack” on peace and security “near the EU-NATO border”.
“Our assessment at the moment is that (China) is adhering to the requirements, but we would continue to encourage each country to think carefully about what place they want — what role they want to play — in history as we all do. looking back,” Psaki said during a press conference on Wednesday.
Sullivan told Bash on Sunday that the US has made it clear to Beijing that there will be “absolute consequences” for “large-scale” efforts to provide the Kremlin with a temporary solution to US sanctions.
“We will not allow this to continue and allow there to be a lifeline to Russia from these economic sanctions from any country anywhere in the world,” he said.
Still, Sullivan said that while the US believes that “China did in fact know before the invasion that Vladimir Putin was up to something, they may not understand the full extent of it.”
“Because it’s very possible that Putin lied to them the same way he lied to Europeans and others,” Sullivan told Bash.
While US officials have noted China’s adherence to sanctions imposed by the US and its allies against Russia, Biden recently said he was unwilling to discuss his efforts to pressure China to help isolate Russia over the bloody war in the Kremlin.
Biden has often spoken of his conversations with Xi, often recalling the dozens of hours the two leaders spent together when they were their country’s vice presidents. In his speeches, Biden often recalls a dinner with Xi on the Tibetan plateau and describes the United States in one word: “opportunities.”
During the face-to-face meeting in Rome, Sullivan and Yang will also discuss issues Biden and Xi discussed during their virtual phone call last year, sources familiar with the matter say. The sources added that this meeting has been in the works for a while and they don’t expect any concrete results from it.
Since taking office, Biden has emphasized that he believes the US is at a turning point in its history and needs to show that world democracies can compete with autocratic regimes like China’s.
During the three-hour summit with his Chinese counterpart about four months ago, Biden expressed concerns about human rights, Chinese aggression against Taiwan and trade issues. The Biden administration has made it clear that managing competition with China is a long-term priority for the national security and economy of the United States.
“How the United States, Europe and Asia work together to ensure peace and defend our shared values and advance our prosperity in the Pacific will be one of the most profound efforts we undertake,” Biden said at the conference last year. security conference in Munich.
In Rome, Sullivan is also expected to meet with Luigi Mattiolo, diplomatic adviser to the Italian Prime Minister; the two men will discuss ongoing efforts to respond to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, according to Horne’s statement.
Nuclear escalation threat
Meanwhile, Sullivan told DailyExpertNews on Sunday that while the Biden administration is “concerned about the possibility of escalation” regarding Putin’s nuclear stance, “we haven’t seen anything that would force us to change our nuclear stance at this point.”
“We’re watching this very closely, and it’s clear that the risk of escalation with a nuclear power is serious, and it’s a different kind of conflict than other conflicts that the American people have seen over the years,” he said. State of the Union”. †
“The President listened to the assessment of his intelligence community, he listened to the advice of his military commanders, he consulted his NATO allies, and he ultimately determined that the risk-benefit analysis of flying aircraft from NATO bases to the disputed airspace above Ukraine didn’t make sense, wasn’t something it would approve,” he said, adding that the US is focused on providing “other anti-aircraft defense systems that can help Ukrainians make progress in dealing with the threat posed from the air.” comes the Russian side.”
This story has been updated with additional response and background information.
Donald Judd, Jasmine Wright, Betsy Klein and Kylie Atwood of DailyExpertNews contributed to this report.
