The North Atlantic Alliance has noted “certain indications” that Russia has asked China for weapons, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday.
Stoltenberg on Tuesday warned China against supplying lethal weapons to Russia. It was on that day that the leaders of both countries – Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin – had a meeting in Moscow. They also discussed the Chinese peace plan for Ukraine, which the West had already rejected.
“We have not seen any evidence that China is supplying lethal weapons to Russia, but we have seen some indications that Russia has had such a request, and this is something that Chinese officials in Beijing are considering,” Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels, without elaborating.
“China should not provide Russia with lethal weapons that could be used during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, because that would be support for an illegal war,” the head of NATO warned. He added that Chinese arms supplies would prolong the conflict.
Western intelligence services have previously indicated that Moscow is running low on certain ammunition, such as artillery rounds. Last month, the British International Institute for Strategic Studies said that Russia had lost more than half of its modern tanks since the start of the invasion, writes the British newspaper The Independent.
Unlike Ukraine, Russia cannot rely on a grand coalition of allies to resupply, even as Iran has promised to increase supplies of its drones and missiles.
Stoltenberg also announced on Tuesday that he will convene NATO representatives for a high-level meeting on Ukraine to be held in April.
The Chinese president ended his three-day visit to Russia on Wednesday morning and left Moscow. His trip was a sign of strong political support for the Russian president, who was issued an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court last week for the deportation of children from Ukraine.
After the negotiations, the presidents issued a joint declaration in which they said, among other things, that they would expand military cooperation and conduct joint naval and air patrols more often. However, there was no mention of supplying Chinese weapons to Russia.
Don’t overlook
Stoltenberg refused to supply Ukraine with cluster and phosphorous ammunition