No evidence yet of China sending Russia lethal arms: EU Commission
2 Min Read
The EU Commission Foreign Affairs admits there is no clear evidence of China providing lethal weapons to Russia.
-
European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, September 28, 2022 (REUTERS)
EU Commission Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, Nabila Massrali, said on Friday that the European Union has discovered no proof that China is sending Russia weaponry to use in Ukraine.
"We currently have no clear evidence of China providing lethal weapon systems to Russia, but we will call on China to refrain from any form of military assistance," Massrali said during a briefing.
This comes shortly after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed on Sunday that China was considering the provision of arms to Russia in the midst of the Ukraine war, warning that alleged arms supplies from Beijing to Moscow would "cause a serious problem."
"The concern that we have now is based on information we have that they're considering providing lethal support," Blinken told CBS's Face The Nation.
Asked about what the alleged arms supplies from China would include, Blinken said, "everything from ammunition to the weapons themselves."
The top US diplomat made similar claims during a series of interviews with American television from Germany on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, during which he met with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.
Equivocally, the Chinese Foreign Ministry stressed on Sunday that China will never accept that US "finger-pointing" target China-Russia relations and called on Washington to work toward a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis instead of deteriorating the situation.
The United States, as a major power, should "work for a political settlement of the [Ukraine] crisis instead of fanning the flames or profiteering from the situation," the Chinese ministry pointed out in a statement.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg voiced last Tuesday the US-led military alliance's concern over China supplying Russia with weapons amid the ongoing Ukraine war.
Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrel recounted a conversation he had with Wang at the Munich Security Conference.
Before assuring Borrel that China wasn't supplying weapons to any country at war, Wang implicitly pointed to the European double standards: questioning Europe's concern about China's alleged military support to Russia when Europe was supplying Ukraine with weapons.
Read more: China mulling giving weapons to Russia amid war, US claims
