U.S. considers publishing data on Chinese arms transfers to Russia
The U.S. government may release intelligence information on the potential arms transfer from China to Russia to support its war in Ukraine, reported Thursday. The Wall Street Journal.
The debate within the administration presided over by Joe Biden over this disclosure comes ahead of this Friday’s meeting of the United Nations Security Councilon the occasion of the one year after the Russian invasion of the Ukrainesaid the newspaper, citing unidentified U.S. official sources.
It also coincides with a series of appeals to China, coordinated by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies, which culminated in a formal warning delivered last weekend at the Munich conference to Wang YiChina’s top foreign policy official.
The missive was delivered to Wang by several Western officials, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.
In addition, Blinken and Wang held a meeting on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference that ended without any rapprochement on key issues and took place in a “tense” atmosphere, with the recent shooting down of a Chinese surveillance balloon in the United States as a backdrop to the conversation, the newspaper said.
Last Tuesday, Wang held a meeting in Moscow with the Russian president, Vladimir Putinwho stressed that “cooperation in the international arena 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 “self-imposed” restriction on arms supplies to Russia.”according to U.S. and European officials, although it appears that China has not yet made a final decision on the matter, he added. The Wall Street Journal.
China has so far been cautious in limiting its support for Moscow to financial assistance 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 has been some ambiguity about what practical assistance China might provide to Russia,” the New York-based newspaper added.
The official quoted by the newspaper said that the reports intelligence reports on this matter now held by the U.S. and its allies are “very much less ambiguous“.
The newspaper also recalled that this confrontation with China over aid to Russia comes amid escalating tensions between Beijing and Washington following the incident of the Chinese balloon shot down by the U.S. and on the eve of the anniversary of the first year of war in Ukraine, which falls on Friday.
