Biden brushes off concerns about China arming Russia, but promises ‘severe sanctions’ if it does

US president says he doesn’t anticipate ‘major initiative’ by Beijing to supply weapons to Moscow, though White House officials say China might be mulling military aid

He also dismisses Chinese peace plan for Ukraine war: ‘How could it be any good?’

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“Putin’s applauding it,” US President Joe Biden said of Beijing’s proposal for ending the war in Ukraine. Photo: AP

Published: 11:53am, 25 Feb 2023Updated: 3:36pm, 25 Feb 2023

US President Joe Biden said on Friday that he did not expect China to supply weapons to Russia in support of Moscow’s war against Ukraine, but that Washington would respond if he turned out to be wrong.

“I don’t anticipate – we haven’t seen it yet – but I don’t anticipate a major initiative on the part of China providing weaponry to Russia,” the US leader told ABC News.

“We would impose severe sanctions on anyone” who would arm Russia, Biden said, when pressed on the issue. “We would respond.”

Biden administration officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have said several times in the past week that Beijing is mulling military assistance to Russia, a claim the Chinese government has rejected.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said earlier on Friday that China might be mulling such a plan, but that US intelligence had not seen it move forward.

“While we have indications that China may be considering the provision of lethal capabilities to Russia, we haven’t seen them make that decision,” Kirby said.

“We haven’t seen them move in that direction.

“We’ve been clear both privately and publicly about our concerns with respect to that potential outcome, frankly, China should not want to become tangibly involved in that manner.”

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