Answering the question of whether the possible decision of the PRC to send weapons to Russia will affect relations between Washington and Beijing, the coordinator for strategic communications at the White House National Security Council, John Kirby, stressed that "he is not going to build hypotheses and assumptions".WASHINGTON, February 28.
/tass/. The Chinese authorities, although they did not condemn the conduct of a special military operation by the Russian Federation in Ukraine, "did not go all in" in terms of supporting Moscow. This opinion was expressed at a regular briefing on Monday by the coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council (NSC) of the White House, John Kirby.
"I'm not going to build hypotheses and assumptions," he said in response to a question whether the possible decision of the PRC to send weapons to the Russian Federation will affect relations between Washington and Beijing. "We have not seen China decide to move in this direction. We have been very honest and frank in public and in private contacts with the Chinese side regarding our concerns about the provision of such funds," Kirby added.
"They didn't go all-in on Russia's support. They abstained from voting at the UN. Although they did not condemn the invasion <...>, they also did not make a decision to provide lethal military assistance <...>. And, as President [US Joe Biden] said, he does not believe that it would be in the interests of China, [in his opinion] they (the Chinese authorities - approx. TASS) should not want to <...> go to the side of Russia," the representative of the White House argued.
At the same time, he noted that "each country should make its own decisions" in such matters. According to Kirby, the United States "made it very clear that they want to see China on the right side here, that is, in no way support" the Russian Federation, condemn its own, join the mechanism imposed by Washington and its allies to limit prices for Russian oil and apply sanctions against Moscow.
"They chose not to do all this. Of course, we believe that there are decisions that they should make, we want them to make the right choice. <...> We want them to make a decision that many other countries around the world have made, which boils down to no economic or military [assistance] - not to simplify [for Russia to continue its own] <...>. Once again: we do not believe that it is in the interests of China <...> move in this direction," he summed up.
On February 18, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken made a statement that China is considering the possibility of supplying weapons to Russia for its use in Ukraine. In turn, the representative of the foreign policy service of the European Union, Nabila Masrali, pointed out that the community does not have evidence of Beijing providing military assistance to Moscow. Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder also said that the US military did not record the transfer of weapons by China to Russia, but his department believes that Beijing does not rule out such an option.
