On Friday Russian President Vladimir Putin made a visit to the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, meeting with Xi Jinping, which lead to an announcement by both countries of China’s support for Russian opposition to further NATO expansion. The two countries said their friendship between them has no limits and that no area of their cooperation was forbidden.
Russia has amassed up to 130,000 troops along its border with Ukraine and demanded that NATO rescind its promise to Ukraine that it will be admitted as a member, citing security concerns.
Even with the build up of troops on their border, the Kremlin continues to deny having plans to invade Ukraine. The U.S. Alleged on Wednesday that its intelligence uncovered a plot that Russia would use a fake video of a Ukraine attack on Russia, as a pretext to launch their own attack. So far, the U.S. has refused to provide evidence of the allegation.
The published statement by Putin was a joint announcement by Moscow and Beijing, on the NATO situation and on a raft of issues, including the call on the North Atlantic Alliance to abandon it ideologized cold war approaches.
Both nations voiced concern over the AUKUS trilateral security pact between Australia,, the United Kingdom, and the United states that was announced on September 15, 2021 for the Indo-Pacific. Under this pact the U.S. and the U.K. will help Australia build at least eight nuclear-powered submarines.
This pact is seen as an effort to boost security in the Asia-Pacific region and to counter China as it becomes increasingly aggressive in the South China Sea, BBC News reported.
The statement also noted Russia’s support for Beijing’s One China policy, which claims Taiwan, an independent democracy, is a breakaway province that will eventually be a part of China again. Qin Gang, China’s ambassador to the U.S. said war was “likely” if the U.S. continue to support Taiwan’s independence.
