by Joel
Gehrke, Foreign Affairs Reporter |
June 12, 2023 06:55 PM
Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping should cut all aid to Russia’s war in Ukraine, a senior Italian official urged in the latest sign that China’s influence in Rome has eroded.
“As far as China is concerned, I believe that a country that
submitted a number of points to build peace cannot and should not provide any
kind of support to a country such as Russia that violated international law,”
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Monday.
Tajani delivered that rebuke alongside Secretary of
State Antony Blinken in response to findings from a British
research team that identified brand new Chinese components in Iran-made
drones used to attack Ukraine. The statement is the latest indication that
populist Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni intends to anchor Italy within the
transatlantic consensus, just three years after a previous Italian government
joined China’s vaunted overseas infrastructure program.
“China’s commitment should be aimed not at strengthening
Russia but, on the other hand, to favor peace,” Tajani said. "Therefore, I
hope that it will go in that direction.”
Russian President Vladimir
Putin launched the campaign to overthrow the Ukrainian government last
year with the apparent expectation of rapid success, but the resilient
Ukrainian defense has strained Russia’s reserves of military equipment and
personnel. Iran answered Putin’s call for reinforcements with a steady stream
of attack drones for the winter bombardment of Ukrainian energy infrastructure,
and Ukrainian officials have protested the discovery of Chinese components in
Russian weaponry, although Chinese officials reportedly have stopped short of
providing weapons directly to Russian forces.
“To date, we’ve not seen that line crossed,” Blinken said.
“At the same time, we have concerns about private companies engaged in the
provision of technologies, including dual-use technologies.”
United States and European officials have launched a
multi-pronged effort to dissuade Xi from opening his arsenals to Putin, amid a
wider corrosion of China’s relationship with the U.S. and its democratic allies
across Europe and the Indo-Pacific. Tajani’s visit to Washington comes on the
heels of reports that Meloni intends to withdraw from the Belt and Road
Initiative, which would reverse that diplomatic coup that Xi enjoyed when Italy
became the only G-7 country to sign up for the Chinese project.
“It is possible to have good relations with Beijing, also in
important domains, without them necessarily being part of an overall strategic
plan,” Meloni said late last month.
Tajani emphasized that Italy is "a loyal country,
serious, credible, and reliable” for the United States and its other allies.
“We found agreement on the actions to be taken in the Middle
East and North Africa, in the Indo-Pacific area,” he said. “This transatlantic
relationship, based on a common vision of NATO and trade exchanges that are
very solid, will allow us to solve any issue that might happen, and we will do
so as friends. And under an economic point of view, we are in total agreement.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/italy-china-support-russia
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