Antony Blinken: “China Does Not Directly Supply Arms, Missiles and Ammunition to Russia. Iran Does It. Korea No

“It is fair to say that China does not directly supply Russia with weapons, missiles and ammunition. Iran does. North Korea is doing it,” said Blinken in a debate at a special session of the World Economic Forum (WEF) held in Saudi Arabia.

Instead, the US Secretary of State added, China “provides incalculable support to Russia’s defense industrial base”, which reduces the “massive pressure” exerted by the West on the Russian military-industrial complex through sanctions, export controls and other measures. .

“If you look at what Russia has done in the last year in terms of production of munitions, missiles, tanks and armored vehicles, it has manufactured them at a faster rate than at any other time in its modern history, including during the War Cold”, which was possible because Russia “receives massive supplies of machine tools, microelectronics and optics, mostly from China”, explained the head of American diplomacy.

“China must not help Russia”

“These are dual-use products, but we know very well where a lot of them end up,” continued Blinken, who made an official visit to Beijing last week, where he told a press conference after meeting with his counterpart his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and the President of China, Xi Jinping, that “it would be more difficult for Russia to continue its assault on Ukraine without China’s support”.

“We made it clear at the meetings that China should not help Russia by supplying electronic, mechanical, electromechanical and other types of defense technology,” he explained at the same press conference, adding that Washington does not rule out possible sanctions against Chinese companies. which supplies Russia with such equipment.

On the other hand, Antony Blinken estimated on Monday at the debate he attended in Saudi Arabia that the war against Ukraine that Russian President Vladimir Putin launched in February 2022 is a “strategic disaster” for Russia, as this country is now “more weakened”.

The way Russia has reoriented its economy in the wake of Western sanctions may “work in the short term, but it is not sustainable in the long term”, believes the head of American diplomacy, after last week the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast an increase of the Russian economy of 3.2% for the current year.

“Overall, Russia is economically weaker. It is weaker militarily, given that so many of its forces have been destroyed. And it is weaker diplomatically in much of the world, not everywhere, but it is (weaker) in most of it”, while “Ukrainians are more united than ever, including united against Russia, which was not the case before 2014 , when Russia committed the first aggression against Ukraine”, believes Antony Blinken.

“Strategic failure for Russia”

He also praised how Europe “moved away from dependence on Russian energy in an extraordinary way and in a time frame of only two years”. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the EU adopted a policy of reducing imports of Russian natural gas, which were partially replaced by liquefied natural gas (LNG) imported mainly from the USA. Brought in by gas tankers, these gases are more expensive than natural gas transported through existing pipelines.

“All this represents, I think, an enormous strategic failure for Russia. In many respects, Putin has precipitated many of the things he wanted to avoid. I hope this will be recognized”, especially “when Russia will show that it is really willing to negotiate”, concluded Antony Blinken.

His Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov said earlier this month, speaking about possible peace talks, that Moscow supports “convening a conference that would be acceptable to Russia and Ukraine”, but that any future negotiations with Kiev must take into account the situation on the land, meaning Russia’s paper annexation of the Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson, partially occupied by Russian troops, and Crimea, also annexed and fully occupied by Russia in 2014.

Lavrov also criticized the West’s repeated references to the need for Russia to suffer a strategic defeat on the battlefield in Ukraine and argued that Moscow would not accept a truce with Ukraine even if peace negotiations were to resume.

For his part, the spokesman of the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, said that the unfinished peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine at the negotiations held in March-April 2022 in Istanbul could be the basis for new negotiations, adding, however, that Moscow does not feel from Kiev any availability for discussions.

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