President Xi Meets President Putin In Beijing, US: Should Be Able To Encourage Russia To Defuse Tensions In Ukraine

JAKARTA - The meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing should be an opportunity for China to push Russia to defuse tensions with Ukraine, the US State Department's top diplomat for East Asia, Daniel Kritenbrink, said Friday.

Such an approach is what the world expects from a “responsible power,” Kritenbrink told reporters of a meeting at which China and Russia proclaimed a deep strategic partnership.

Kritenbrink said the meeting and the joint statement that followed it reflected the approach China and Russia had taken for some time, "namely to move closer."

"The meeting should give China an opportunity to push Russia into diplomacy and de-escalation in Ukraine." Kretenbrink said, citing Reuters Feb 5.

"If Russia invades Ukraine further and China looks the other way, it shows China is willing to tolerate or tacitly support Russia's efforts to coerce Ukraine, even as they humiliate Beijing, jeopardize European security and jeopardize global peace and economic stability," he said. .

The Sino-Russian agreement marks the most detailed and unequivocal statement of Russia and China's determination to work together, and against the United States, to build a new international order based on their own interpretations of human rights and democracy.

They pledged to protect each other's core interests, an apparent reference to Russia and Ukraine and Taiwan, an island Beijing claims as its own.

The joint statement was also highly critical of the US move to counter China's growing power in the Indo-Pacific region through the AUKUS pact, under which the United States and Britain plan to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines.

For information, President Xi Jinping hosted President Putin on the opening day of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, last Friday.

Last Thursday the US State Department warned Russia that closer ties with Beijing would not make up for the consequences imposed in response if it invaded Ukraine.