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China to face increasing pressure if US gives Ukraine Nato-style protection: analysts
Still, Beijing welcomes engagement between Washington and Moscow to improve their relations and advance ‘political settlement’ of the crisis
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China is likely to face “increasing” geopolitical pressure if the US extends Nato-style security protection to Ukraine to end its war with Russia following the Trump-Putin summit, Chinese analysts have warned.
Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed at the meeting in Alaska to allow the United States and Europe to “effectively offer Article 5-like” security guarantees to Kyiv as part of a potential peace deal, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who attended the high-stakes talks, said on Sunday.
Article 5 refers to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s principle that an armed attack against any member of the security alliance is construed as an attack on all its members, and justifying the use of force in response.
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During an interview with CNN, Witkoff described that understanding as “game-changing” and an alternative to bypass Moscow’s “red flag” opposing Ukraine’s admission to Nato – if Ukrainians “could live with that”.
Separately, America’s top diplomat, Marco Rubio, another participant in the US-Russia summit, said in an interview with Fox Business on Sunday that when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the White House on Monday, conversations would be centred around “the kinds of security guarantees that Ukraine is looking for”.
Earlier, Trump had said that issues including “land swaps” and Washington’s security assurances for Ukraine outside Nato had been “negotiated” and “largely agreed”.
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