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In response to
"Poland’s president and NATO say Ukrainian defense against a Russian barrage likely caused the deadly blast."
by
crash davis
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China affirms ties with Russia but signals that it’s becoming more guarded about the war.
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While Western leaders shun Russia at the Group of 20 summit, China has affirmed that it wants to “deepen practical cooperation” with Moscow, despite President Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Even so, when the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, held talks on Tuesday with his Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov, the official Chinese summary of Mr. Wang’s comments suggested that Beijing has become more guarded about the course of the war, even while it tries to maintain a partnership with Mr. Putin.
Mr. Wang said that China welcomed recent Russian comments denying it might use nuclear weapons over Ukraine, despite recent discussions among senior Russian officials about how Moscow might use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine, as The New York Times has reported.
“China has noted that Russia recently reaffirmed its established position that nuclear war must not and cannot be fought, and this is a rational and responsible stance by Russia,” Mr. Wang said, according to the summary of the talks issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
The meeting appeared to have taken place before news spread that two Polish citizens had died in an explosion near Poland’s border with Ukraine. Mr. Lavrov has since departed the summit to return to Russia, Russian state media reported.
Mr. Wang seemed to be referring to comments that Mr. Putin made in late October, when he denied that Moscow was preparing to use nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine. “We have no need to do this,” Mr. Putin said. “There’s no sense for us, neither political nor military.”
Mr. Putin’s denial stands against the assessments of senior American officials, who were alarmed by the Russian military leaders’ discussions over possibly using a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine. In a speech in late September, Mr. Putin made a cryptic reference to the atomic bombs that the United States dropped on Japan in 1945.
Still, Mr. Wang appeared to want to encourage Russia to take steps that could ease international ill will that has spilled over to China. The Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, declared a “no limits” partnership with Moscow early this year, weeks before Mr. Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine.
Mr. Wang said he welcomed Russia’s agreement this month to allow Ukrainian grain exports to resume through the Black Sea. President Biden said that during his summit with Mr. Xi on Monday, they had agreed to oppose Russia’s threat of using nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war.
But even with Mr. Putin’s setbacks in Ukraine, China does not appear ready to walk away from Russia, which it sees as a vital strategic partner against the United States and its allies. Mr. Wang said that Beijing and Moscow should continue working together to “promote a more multipolar world.”
“My own sense is that the strategic partnership is strong but that China has room to maneuver a bit within that context,” said Joseph Torigian, an assistant professor at the School of International Service at American University in Washington who studies Chinese and Russian politics. “Sometimes signaling closeness, sometimes signaling distance.”
— Chris Buckley
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