U.S.Warns China Of 'Severe Consequences' If Lethal Aid Goes To Russia

Washington D.C./23.02.23/Turan:   The Biden Administration has now given several cautionary warnings to Beijing as concerns mount that China will step up support for Putin's war in Ukraine, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

Washington has "not yet seen" China providing lethal aid to Russia, but the Chinese also haven't taken that aid off the table, the administration officials say.

There would be severe consequences for doing so, according to State Department spokesperson Ned Price. "The PRC is going to make its own decisions. We want to be clear with them so that they can make informed decisions," Price told a daily press briefing.

"And if the PRC is willing to risk the severe consequences that we’ve talked about, obviously that’s a sovereign decision on their part. But again, we want that decision to be an informed one," Price added.

Separately, regarding the U.S.-Russia New START treaty, which Moscow just suspended, Price said: "We’ll have to see what steps the Russian Federation actually takes... Nevertheless, this was an unfortunate decision. It was an irresponsible decision. We hope Russia reverses course."

Washington, Price said, has "made very clear" a couple things: One, Russia has been in technical noncompliance with the treaty for some time precisely because the Russians weren’t willing to meet with us at an opportunity that we had arranged late last year, earlier this year. Overcoming that technical noncompliance would not be a difficult feat.

"We hope Russia reverses course.  It is not only in our interests.  It’s in Russia’s interests.  It’s in the interests of countries around the world," he concluded.

Alex Raufoglu