Top Biden, Xi Aides Meet As Russia Seeks Military Aid From China

The US and China are sending top aides to meet in Rome on Monday, Mar. 14, 2022, amid tensions between the two countries over the Russia-Ukraine war, and as the former said Russia has asked China for military equipment to help press its campaign, which has had limited success in the past 19 days, Aamer Madhani and Josh Boak reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: “We will not allow that to go forward and allow there to be a lifeline to Russia from these economic sanctions from any country anywhere in the world,” said national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan bluntly warned China to avoid helping Russia evade punishment from global sanctions that have hammered the Russian economy.

“We will not allow that to go forward,” he said. US officials are also accusing China of spreading Russian disinformation that could be a pretext for Vladimir Putin’s forces to attack Ukraine with chemical or biological weapons. Russia has used chemical agents in its bid to assassinate Putin’s critics.

A US official said that in recent days, Russia had requested support from China, including military equipment, to press forward in its ongoing war with Ukraine. The official did not provide details on the scope of the request. The request was first reported by the Financial Times and The Washington Post.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put China in a delicate spot with two of its biggest trading partners: The US and European Union (EU.) China needs access to those markets, yet it also has shown support for Moscow, joining with Russia in declaring a friendship with “no limits.” In his talks with senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi, Sullivan will indeed be looking for limits in what Beijing will do for Moscow.

“I’m not going to sit here publicly and brandish threats,” he told CNN in a round of Sunday news show interviews. “But what I will tell you is we are communicating directly and privately to Beijing that there absolutely will be consequences” if China helps Russia “backfill” its losses from the sanctions.

“We will not allow that to go forward and allow there to be a lifeline to Russia from these economic sanctions from any country anywhere in the world,” he said.

In brief comments on the talks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian did not mention Ukraine, saying that the “key issue of this meeting is to implement the important consensus reached by the Chinese and US heads of state in their virtual summit in November last year.”

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