Tag: Russia

Putin and Biden Shore Up Alliances in Dueling Appearances

Chin@Strategy

WARSAW — In a day of dueling efforts to shore up allegiances, President Biden wrapped up a three-day trip to Europe Wednesday with a promise of America’s commitment to its allies as President Vladimir V. Putin warmly welcomed China’s top diplomat to Moscow and rallied pro-war Russians. With the anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine approaching, Mr. Biden met in Warsaw with leaders from NATO’s eastern flank, acknowledging that “you know better than anyone what’s at stake in this conflict, not just for Ukraine, but for the freedom of democracies…

China and Russia reaffirm close ties as Putin meets top diplomat

Chin@Strategy

China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, has met Vladimir Putin in Moscow, as China and Russia reaffirm their close bilateral relationship just days before the first anniversary of the start of the Ukraine war. In brief televised remarks Wang said China and Russia were ready to deepen their strategic cooperation. Earlier on Wednesday, Wang met Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, where he said he expected to reach a “new consensus” on advancing the relationship between the two allies. Putin said that “Russian-Chinese relations were proceeding as planned” and talked of reaching…

China and Japan meet for formal security talks to stabilise tensions

Chin@Strategy

Chinese and Japanese officials met in Tokyo on Wednesday for formal security talks for the first time in four years, in a meeting aimed at stabilising increasingly strained relations. In Japan’s national security strategy, released in December, China was described as “the greatest strategic challenge” to Japan’s peace and security. Both sides expressed concerns at Wednesday’s meeting. China said it was troubled by Japan’s military buildup while Tokyo is worried about China’s suspected use of spy balloons as well as Chinese military activities around Japan, including cooperation with Russia. Last…

China’s Economic Support for Russia Could Elicit More Sanctions

Chin@Strategy

WASHINGTON — President Biden and his top officials vowed this week to introduce additional sanctions aimed at impeding Russia’s war efforts against Ukraine. But the administration’s focus is increasingly shifting to the role that China has played in supplying Russia with goods that have both civilian and military uses. As one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of products like electronics, drones and vehicle parts, China has proved to be a particularly crucial economic partner for Russia. Beijing has remained officially unaligned in the war. Yet China, along with countries like…

China foreign minister warns against ‘fuelling the fire’ over Ukraine conflict

Chin@Strategy

China’s new foreign minister has accused the US of shifting blame for the Ukraine war on to China, in an apparent pushback against warnings from Washington that China is considering supplying weapons to Russia. Speaking on Tuesday morning, at the launch of a Chinese government paper on its global security initiative, Qin Gang said China was “deeply concerned” about the war in Ukraine escalating and possibly “spiralling out of control”. Beijing signed a no-limits partnership with Moscow just weeks before the invasion of Ukraine one year ago. Since then, it…

In Biden’s Unannounced Visit to Kyiv, a Preview of an Increasingly Direct Contest With Putin

Chin@Strategy

WARSAW — President Biden’s sudden appearance in Kyiv’s presidential palace on Monday morning was intended first as a morale booster for shellshocked Ukrainians in the midst of a bleak winter of power outages and a bitter war of attrition. But it was also the first of several direct challenges on this trip to President Vladimir V. Putin, who a year ago this week believed the Ukrainian capital would become Russian-controlled territory again in a matter of days, moving Mr. Putin closer to his ambition of restoring the empire of Peter…

Biden promises Kyiv extra military aid as EU discusses ammunition

Chin@Strategy

Joe Biden has promised further military aid for Ukraine worth $500m (£415m) during his unannounced visit to Kyiv, as EU foreign ministers met in Brussels to discuss ways to accelerate the provision of ammunition. The US president also said additional sanctions would be announced this week against Russia’s elite and companies trying to evade existing sanctions in order to “back the Russian war machine”. In a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Biden discussed the text of a resolution to be put to a vote at the UN on…

China Says U.S. Is ‘Not Qualified’ to Issue Orders on Arms

Chin@Strategy

Bristling against U.S. claims that Beijing may be poised to send “lethal support” to help Russia’s war in Ukraine, China accused the Biden administration on Monday of spreading lies and defended China’s close partnership with Russia. The remarks, by a spokesman from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, were part of a series of diplomatic moves as China’s leader, Xi Jinping, tries to preserve ties with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia while casting Beijing as a blameless onlooker in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, trying only to coax Moscow and…

U.S. Warnings to China on Arms Aid for Russia’s War Portend Global Rift

Chin@Strategy

MADRID — When the top foreign policy officials from the United States and China appeared this weekend at Europe’s premiere global security conference, both stressed that their governments were not seeking a new Cold War. Yet, new warnings by U.S. officials that China may be preparing to give weapons and ammunition to Russia ‌for its war on Ukraine portend the worst of the old Cold War. In that decades-long shadow struggle, the United States, the Soviet Union and occasionally China poured military resources into protracted wars around the globe, engaging…