US president says he doesn’t anticipate ‘major initiative’ by Beijing to supply weapons to Moscow, though White House officials say China might be mulling military aid.
US President Joe Biden said on Friday that he did not expect China to provide Russia with weapons in support of Moscow’s war against Ukraine , but that Washington would respond if he turned out to be wrong. “I don’t anticipate – we haven’t seen it yet – but I don’t anticipate a major initiative on the part of China providing weaponry to Russia ,” the US leader . “We would impose severe sanctions on anyone” who would arm Russia, Biden said, when pressed on the issue. “We would respond.” China won’t arm Russia in Ukraine but don’t rule out third parties: analysts Biden administration officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken , have said several times in the past week that Beijing is mulling military assistance to Russia, an assertion the Chinese government has refuted. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said earlier on Friday that China might be mulling such a plan, but that US intelligence had not seen it move forward.
