In NATO's most serious denunciation of China to date, the military coalition labeled Beijing a "decisive enabler" of Russia in its ongoing war in Ukraine and expressed concerns over its nuclear arsenal and "systemic challenges" to the coalition's security.
"The PRC has become a decisive enabler of Russia's war against Ukraine through its so-called 'no limits' partnership and its large-scale support for Russia's defence industrial base," a NATO communique said Wednesday, on the second day of a Washington summit celebrating the alliance's 75th anniversary.
Earlier this week, Beijing started joint military exercises with Russia's close ally Belarus at a training ground mere miles away from the Polish border, the Belarusian Defense Ministry said in a Google-translated Telegram post.
On the February 2023 first-year anniversary of the Ukraine war, China — which a month later successfully capitalized on goodwill earned as a trade partner to broker a reconciliation between arch-enemies Iran and Saudi Arabia — pitched a peace framework for the conflict between Moscow and Kyiv.
It, like Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's peace plan and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin's own recent conditions to ignite diplomatic negotiations, has so far failed to gain traction.
Persons:
Xi Jinping, Russia's, Saudi Arabia —, Volodymyr Zelenskyy's, Vladimir Putin's
Organizations:
NATO, West, Belarusian Defense Ministry
Locations:
China, Beijing, Russia, Ukraine, Washington, Moscow, Belarus, Polish, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kyiv