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QUESTION: Russia President Putin visits China later this week. It will be his first foreign trip as new term as the president. So what do you expect? Are you concerned China-Russia tie will be much closer, or not?
MR PATEL: So I’ve seen those reports. And if China purports to want good relations with Europe and other countries, it cannot continue to fuel the biggest threat to European security, and that is Russia’s aggression on Ukraine. The importance of this is not just a U.S. position, but it’s also been clearly communicated from our partners in the G7 to our partners in NATO and to – from the EU. If the PRC were to end its support for Russia, Russia would struggle to sustain its war efforts against Ukraine, and no country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression against Ukraine. We cannot return to business as usual or turn a blind eye to the clear violations of international law that Russia has committed.
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Source: U.S. Department of State
Speaker: Vedant Patel, Principal Deputy Spokesperson
Format: Press Briefing
China Policy Research 