The presidents of The United States and China, Joe Biden and Xi Jinpingrespectively, will address this Friday by telephone (at 1:00 p.m. GMT) the conflict in Ukraine triggered by the Russian invasion on February 24, among other issues.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki detailed in a statement Thursday that the talk between the leaders is part of Washington’s ongoing efforts to keep the lines of communication between the United States and China “open.” In addition to the war in Ukraine, discuss other issues of concern mutual.
For his part, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, once again insisted on Washington’s rhetoric that makes China “responsible” for having to “influence” Russian President Vladimir Putin to turn the current war crisis around in Ukraine.
We continue to call on all nations, especially those that have direct influence over Russia, to use that power to force Moscow to end this war of their choosing,” Blinken said.
Use your influence
“In particular, we believe that China has a responsibility to use his influence with President Putin and thus defend the international rules and principles that it claims to support,” continued the head of US diplomacy.
However, “it appears that China is moving in the opposite direction by refusing to condemn this aggression while seeking to present itself as a neutral arbiter,” according to Blinken, who also accused Beijing of “considering directly assisting Russia with equipment military”.
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“President Biden will speak with President Xi tomorrow and make it clear that China must bear its responsibility for any action it takes to support Russian aggression and we will not hesitate to retaliate,” he warned.
China has not condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, although Xi has spoken that the situation is “worrying” and has urged to dialogue Between the parts. Meanwhile, the United States has been at the forefront of retaliation by a wide range of countries against Moscow.