China’s Role in Providing Russia with Military Equipment: Implications for Ukraine

2023-07-22 21:16:13

An advisor to French President Emmanuel Macron hinted that China is providing Russia with equipment that might be used militarily in Ukraine, stressing that Beijing has not reached the stage of supporting Moscow with “military capabilities.”

“There are indications that they (the Chinese) are doing things that we would not like them to do,” said Emmanuel Bonne, a diplomatic adviser to Macron, in his intervention Thursday night before the Aspen Security Forum.

In response to a question regarding what he was hinting at, Bonn said that the matter is related to Moscow handing over “a kind of military equipment… but as far as we know, they (the Chinese) do not hand over military capabilities to Russia on a large scale.”

A French diplomatic source told AFP that the presidential adviser was hinting at a “possible delivery of dual-use technologies” for civilian and military.

Beijing has officially adopted a neutral position since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022. But it has been criticized by the West for not condemning the Russian military operations, and its relationship with Russia has also witnessed a rapprochement in the past months, which has raised Western fears that Beijing will provide military support to Moscow.

Western countries fear that Chinese companies will provide Russia with technologies that can be used in the military field.

Bonn stressed the need for Beijing to refrain from supporting Moscow militarily, knowing that many Western countries have been providing Ukraine with military equipment and equipment since the start of the war, and have increased the pace of that in the recent period to support a counterattack launched by Kiev to regain territory controlled by Russian forces.

“While the Ukrainian counterattack is going on, when everything is complicated… What we need most from China is for it to refrain” from supplying weapons to Russia, he said.

He stressed his desire for “China to show that it is a reliable partner” in the search for a solution to the conflict in Ukraine, but he expressed regret over “not seeing evidence” of that.

While he affirmed his conviction that China would not contribute to finding a solution to the Ukraine war, he believed that “all we need for the war to stop is for Putin to withdraw and for Ukraine to (militarily) excel over the Russians.”

He indicated that this should be followed by “a kind of solid framework for negotiations” that includes a number of partners such as China and India, who are able to “influence and ensure a solid peace.”

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