“China does not supply weapons, but the ability to produce those weapons and the technology available to do it,” US President Joe Biden said at the summit on Thursday…reports Asian Lite News
The leaders of Group of Seven (G7) in a hardening of tone against Beijing, warned China to stop sending weapons components to Russia and to play by the rules on trade, according to a draft G7 Summit statement.
As the annual Group of Seven (G7) Summit was about to end, the G7 leaders on Friday warned that China’s support for Russia is “enabling” its war in Ukraine and threatened sanctions against actors that are materially supporting Moscow’s war machine, reported CNN.
In a stark warning issued at the end of the G7 Summit in Italy, the leaders stated that Beijing’s ongoing support for Russia’s defence industrial base is enabling Russia to keep up its war against Ukraine.
This comes as the United States is stepping up diplomatic efforts to convince Europe to adopt a tougher stance on China over its role in aiding Russia’s military-industrial complex, as reported by Al Jazeera.
“China’s ongoing support for Russia’s defense industrial base is enabling Russia to maintain its illegal war in Ukraine and has significant and broad-based security implications,” the G7 leaders said in the communique on Friday.
“We call on China to cease the transfer of dual-use materials, including weapons components and equipment, that are inputs for Russia’s defense sector,” they added.
The leaders also threatened further actions, including sanctions, to punish Chinese entities that they say are helping Russia circumvent Western embargoes.
“We will continue taking measures against actors in China and third countries that materially support Russia’s war machine, including financial institutions, consistent with our legal systems, and other entities in China that facilitate Russia’s acquisition of items for its defense industrial base,” the joint statement read.
It further vowed to impose “restrictive measures to prevent abuse and restrict access to our financial systems.”
Earlier in the past also, American officials have accused China of helping Russia expand military manufacturing, including through exports like semiconductors, materials and machine tools they say are enabling Moscow to ramp up production of tanks, munitions and armoured vehicles, Al Jazeera reported.
However, Beijing refuted the allegation, saying that it has not provided weapons to either side and maintains tight export controls on dual-use goods.
The US and European Union have already slapped sanctions on Chinese companies.
Notably, this week also, the US imposed fresh sanctions on China-based firms supplying semiconductors to Russia.
“China does not supply weapons, but the ability to produce those weapons and the technology available to do it,” US President Joe Biden said at the summit on Thursday.
“So it is helping Russia,” he said.
Moreover, the G7 also took a tougher stance on China’s economic policies, especially on the issue of industrial overcapacity, and vowed to take action against “unfair practices” to “level the playing field and remedy ongoing harm.”
“We express our concerns about China’s persistent industrial targeting and comprehensive non-market policies and practices that are leading to global spillovers, market distortions and harmful overcapacity in a growing range of sectors, undermining our workers, industries, and economic resilience and security,” the joint communique said.
Meanwhile, on the eve of G7 Summit, the EU announced additional tariffs on electric vehicles (EV) imported from China following a months-long investigation, over what it sees as Beijing’s unfair support for companies that undercut European carmakers, Al Jazeera reported.
Last month, the US also imposed new tariffs on USD 18 billion in Chinese imports across various sectors deemed strategic to national security, including EVs and clean-energy products.
Additionally, the G7 also voiced strong opposition to what it says are China’s unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion in the East and South China Seas.
“We continue opposing China’s dangerous use of coastguards and maritime militias in the South China Sea and its repeated obstruction of countries’ freedom of navigation in the high seas,” the joint statement said.
“We express serious concern about the increasing use of dangerous manoeuvres and water cannons against Philippine vessels,” it added. (ANI)
Zelenskyy urges for “just and lasting peace”
To put pressure on Russia to end its war with Ukraine, World leaders have gathered in Switzerland to attend Ukraine’s peace summit on Saturday. However, Russia and China abstained from the summit, reported The Kyiv Independent.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is hoping that the leaders gathered at the summit will try to pave the way for a future peace process that includes Russia”.
“There are two days of active work ahead with countries from all corners of the world, with different peoples” who are united by the goal of bringing “a just and lasting peace for Ukraine closer,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on June 14 as he arrived in Switzerland.
The peace summit began on June 15 and will conclude on June 16, bringing together representatives from 92 countries and organisations, less than the 107 countries and international organisations that, according to Kyiv, have confirmed their attendance as of early June.
Despite being invited, China skipped the summit after Russia was frozen out of proceedings on the grounds it had dismissed Ukraine’s summit as “futile” and expressed no interest in attending, Al Jazeera reported.
With China’s absence, Western countries’ hope of isolating Russia has faded, while recent military reverses on the battlefield have put Ukrainian forces on the back foot.
Hopefully, according to Ukraine, the Peace Summit will address several key issues, including energy security, the exchange of captives, the return of deported children, and global food security, among other topics, reported The Kyiv Independent.
Zelenskyy added that the summit will enable the global majority to take concrete steps in areas that are important to everyone in the world, including, nuclear and food security, the return of prisoners of war and all deported persons, including deported Ukrainian children.
Meanwhile, US Vice President Kamala Harris and the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan are among those expected to join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the summit.
India, Turkey and Hungary, which maintained friendly relations with Russia, are also expected to join the summit, Al Jazeera reported.
Notably, Saudi Arabia is also one of the countries present at the summit, despite its earlier announcement in June that the country is not planning to attend the summit.
The Ukrainian President made a previously unannounced visit to Saudi Arabia on June 12.
Meanwhile, Brazil, the Holy See, the United Nations, and the Ecumenical Patriarchate are attending the summit not as full participants but as observers.
According to the reports, US President Joe Biden will not attend the summit, which eventually prompted Zelenksyy to say that his absence would “only be met by an applause by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, a personal, standing applause by Putin.”
“I believe that the peace summit needs President Biden, and other leaders need President Biden because they will look at the US’s reaction,” Zelensky said.
However, Biden is unable to attend the summit because it clashes with a campaign fundraiser, Kyiv Independent reported.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the event an important step towards progress.
“Many questions of peace and security will be discussed, but not the very biggest. That was always the plan,” he said, while speaking to Welt TV before travelling to Switzerland.
“This is a small plant that needs to be watered, but of course also with the perspective that more can then come out of it.”
Earlier on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia will only put an end to its war in Ukraine if Kyiv surrenders the entire territory of four regions claimed by Moscow and abandons its bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), CNN reported.
Ukraine, however, has rejected Putin’s demand and termed it a “complete sham” and “offensive to common sense.”
Putin’s speech, which came on the eve of the Swiss peace conference, mentioned Russia’s conditions for a “final end” to the war in more granular detail than at any previous time since the conflict between Moscow and Kyiv started in February 2022.
The Russian president further called the conference “another ploy to divert everyone’s attention.”
In addition to Ukrainian soldiers withdrawing from four regions, Putin said that Kyiv must demilitarise and that Western nations must lift their sanctions on Russia.
Putin’s demand indicates Russia’s failure to achieve its original war aims, when Moscow believed it could capture Kyiv in days and the rest of Ukraine in weeks, CNN reported.
However, Russia, nearly 28 months later, occupied around a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimean peninsula it annexed 10 years back. (ANI)
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