National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby brushed off a question on March 2 whether China may channel weapons to Russia through Kremlin-aligned Belarus in support of Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Belarus and China expanded their defense partnership during Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s audience with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Beijing on March 1.
In response to a question from The Epoch Times during a White House press briefing on whether the Biden administration is concerned that China may channel weapons to Russia through Belarus, Kirby reiterated the administration’s determination that the Chinese regime has not yet decided whether to send weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine.
Kirby declined to predict if Beijing will use Minsk as a middleman in getting weapons to the Russians.
“Again, we have not seen the Chinese make a decision with respect to providing lethal weaponry,” he said. “We don’t believe they’ve taken it off the table but we don’t believe they made a decision to do that, so I really don’t think it’s helpful to get ahead of where we are here in this process.
“We’ve communicated to the Chinese our concerns about this. It’s really not in their best interest and they should believe the same thing. So let’s just not get ahead of where we are.”
Koffler remarked that one of Xi’s goal in expanding ties with Belarus is to pry Minsk away from Moscow and toward Beijing.
“It’s a move to peel away Belarus from Russia. Russia and China are only short-term partners of convenience,” she said. “They both seek to prevent the U.S. from intervening into their respective perceived spheres of influence on behalf of Ukraine and Taiwan.”
Kirby’s remarks come on the day Secretary of State Antony Blinken briefly met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in New Dehli, India—their first since the start of the war, which Russia launched on Feb. 24, 2022.
However, a State Department official downplayed the meeting.
