The G7 foreign ministers expressed “strong concern” on Friday regarding the supply of weapons components and dual-use materials from Chinese companies to Russia, which Moscow intends to use for military expansion.
As per Barron’s, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pushed European peers to put more pressure on Beijing during a meeting in Italy. Washington claims Beijing is supporting Russia’s “most ambitious defence expansion since the Soviet era”.
Following discussions on the island of Capri, the G7 Foreign Ministers released a final statement in which they expressed, “We express our strong concern about transfers to Russia from businesses in the People’s Republic of China of dual-use materials and weapons components that Russia is using to advance its military production,”
“This presents a threat to international peace and security as well as to Ukraine by allowing Russia to reconstruct and revitalize its defense industrial base.
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“China should ensure that this support stops, as it will only prolong this conflict and increase the threat that Russia poses to its neighbours.”
The G7 nations include the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, and Italy, which is this year’s president.
Beijing must follow Washington’s red line and stop giving Russia weaponry for its conflict in Ukraine. Furthermore, it hasn’t shown any evidence that this has been passed thus far.
However, the US is criticizing China more and more for what it claims to be covert assistance for Moscow.
“When it comes to Russia’s defence industrial base, the primary contributor in this moment to that is China,” Blinken said to reporters following the Capri meeting.
According to him, this was”allowing Russia to continue the aggression against Ukraine.”
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The envoy went on, “China cannot have it both ways.
“If China purports on the one hand to have positive, friendly relations with Europe and other countries, they can’t be fuelling on the other hand what is the biggest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War.”
Early in the Ukraine crisis, a senior US official stated last week that China was assisting Russia in executing “its most ambitious defence expansion since the Soviet era and on a faster timeline than we believed possible”
Officials from the US said that China was assisting Russia in several areas, including as the cooperative development of drones, space-based capabilities, and exports necessary for the construction of ballistic missiles.
According to a senior US source who spoke to reporters under condition of anonymity, China has played a critical role in reviving Russia’s defense industrial base, “which had otherwise suffered significant setbacks” since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
