NUSA DUA, Indonesia — The battle in Ukraine shifted to a geopolitical front Saturday, as Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with China’s Foreign Minister at the end of a Group of 20 summit in Indonesia, urging him to change course and join the United States and its partners in “standing up” against Russia’s war, while also trying to ease general tensions with Beijing.
The meeting was a test of the Biden administration’s attempt to pursue conflicting foreign policy goals. One of the objectives is to consolidate alliances to constrain China; Just over a week ago, he successfully lobbied for a NATO mission statement to include a strong rebuke of China, calling its policies ‘coercive’, its cyber operations ‘malicious’ and its rhetoric of “confrontation”.
But he is also trying to muster a global effort to punish Moscow for its aggression in Ukraine – a goal that is unlikely to succeed without the cooperation of China first and foremost, but also countries like India, Brazil and India. Saudi Arabia.
During the five-hour meeting, held on the Indonesian resort island of Bali a day after the G20 foreign ministers’ summit, Blinken highlighted issues of common concern with Beijing, including climate change and global health, while underscoring US concern over China. alignment with Russia. This followed months of US warnings to China against sending arms to Russia or helping Moscow to evade Western sanctions imposed in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, Blinken dismissed China’s claims to be neutral in the Russia-Ukraine war as implausible. “I tried to impress on the state councilor that this is really a time when we all have to stand up” to condemn Russian aggression, Blinken said, using the official title of China’s business minister foreigners, Wang Yi.
“I would start with the proposition that it is quite difficult to be neutral in the face of this aggression,” Blinken said, pointing out that Chinese leader Xi Jinping had stood by his statement in February of a partnership with the president. Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, and had even organized a joint strategic bombing exercise in May.
“There is a clear aggressor. There is clearly a victim.
Mr. Wang strongly responded to Mr. Blinken’s statements, urging the United States to refrain from attacking China’s political system and recycling Cold War-era containment strategies, according to the report. the meeting of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He also called on Washington to remove tariffs on Chinese products and stop imposing sanctions on Chinese companies.
“So many people think that the United States is suffering from a growing ‘China phobia’,” Wang said, echoing the Kremlin’s frequent complaints about ‘Russophobia’. “If this concept of ‘growing threat’ is allowed to continue to grow, US China policy will soon become an inescapable stalemate.”
The tete-a-tete followed the meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of 20 industrialized nations that ended without a traditional communiqué, reflecting the apparent impossibility of reaching a consensus amid the war in Ukraine. At two points during the sessions, when Russia came under heavy criticism for its attack on its neighbor, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei V. Lavrov left abruptly, officials said, and then left the rally before its conclusion.
However, Lavrov has spoken to several ministers from countries that have refused to join the Western-led coalition against his country, including China, India, Brazil, Turkey, Argentina and Indonesia, highlighting the Biden administration’s challenge to isolate the country and highlighting Russia’s continued success in doing business with the outside world and funding its relentless war machine.