New York, February 23 The US government may release information on the possible transfer of weapons from China to Russia to support its offensive in Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
The debate within the administration led by Joe Biden on this disclosure comes before the meeting to be held this Friday of the Security Council of the United Nations, a year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, specifies the newspaper, citing unidentified US official sources.
It also coincides with a series of appeals to China, coordinated by North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies, culminating in a formal warning delivered last weekend at the Munich conference in Wang Yi, China’s top foreign policy official.
The letter was delivered to Wang by several Western officials, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.
Separately, Blinken and Wang held a meeting on the sidelines of the Munich security conference that ended without any reconciliation on key issues and took place in a “tense” atmosphere, with the recent shooting down of ‘a Chinese surveillance balloon in the United States while the in the background of the conversation, the newspaper said.
Last Tuesday, Mr. Wang met in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who stressed that “cooperation on the international scene between the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation (…) is of great importance for the stability of the international situation”.
In recent weeks, Western countries have learned that Beijing may end a “self-imposed restriction on arms deliveries to Russia”, according to US and European officials, although China appears to have yet to take action. final decision on this. Street newspaper.
China has so far been cautious in limiting its support for Moscow to financial aid and oil purchases, officials said, but that stance now appears to be changing, according to the latest intelligence assessments.
“Until now – said a senior Western official – there was some ambiguity about the practical help that China could provide to Russia”, added the New York newspaper.
The official quoted by the newspaper clarified that the intelligence reports on this subject now available to the United States and its allies are “much less ambiguous”.
The newspaper also recalled that this confrontation with China over aid to Russia comes amid escalating tensions between Beijing and Washington after the incident of the Chinese balloon shot down by the United States and on the eve of of the anniversary of the first year of war in Ukraine. , which is scheduled for Friday. EFE
int-rml/hma