The US Urges China To Use Its Influence On Russia To Defuse Ukraine Crisis

Illustration of the Russian military on the Ukrainian border. (Wikimedia Commons/Ilya Varlamov)

JAKARTA - The United States on Thursday called on China to use its leverage over Russia to press for a diplomatic solution to defuse the Ukraine crisis, but policy experts doubt Beijing will back Washington in the impasse.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke by phone with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, with Beijing saying it wants all parties to remain calm, refrain from doing things that stoke tensions and escalate the crisis.

Foreign Minister Blinken stressed that tensions must be reduced and warned of the security and economic risks of any Russian aggression against Ukraine, the State Department said.

In response, the US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said the US message to Beijing was very clear.

"We call on Beijing to use its influence over Moscow to push for diplomacy, because if there is a conflict in Ukraine, it will not be good for China either," Nuland said at a regular State Department press conference, citing Reuters January 28.

"There will be a significant impact on the global economy. There will be a significant impact in the energy sector," he said.

Meanwhile, China's UN Ambassador Zhang Jun said, "Olympic truce" for the Beijing Winter Olympics starting on February 4 will start from January 28.

"Let's take this opportunity to promote peace, solidarity, cooperation, and other shared values shared by all humanity, to make our world a better place," Zhang tweeted.

Russia is known to have been building up its forces on the Ukrainian border for months, demanding that NATO withdraw troops and weapons from eastern Europe and barring Ukraine, a former Soviet Union state, from joining the US-led military alliance.

NATO allies reject this, but say they are ready to discuss arms control and confidence-building measures.

Daniel Russel, the senior US diplomat for Asia under former President Barack Obama, said, although China was unhappy about a possible invasion of Ukraine on the eve of the Olympics, "Wang Yi chose to defend Russia's 'legitimate security concerns' rather than offer any support to Blinken."

Bonnie Glaser of the United States' Germany Marshall Fund said Beijing could act as a spoiler for any attempt by the United States and its allies to impose costs on Russia.

"It seems unlikely that the US will be able to engage China over Ukraine. Beijing will not support the use of force, but sympathize with Russia's view of NATO. And this is not just about the Olympics," Glaser said.

If the United States and the European Union impose sanctions on Russia, "China is likely to take steps to mitigate the impact," he said.

To note, the United States has urged Ukraine and Russia to return to a series of pacts to end a Russian-speaking separatist war in eastern Ukraine.

However, the steps laid down in the so-called Minsk II treaty remained unimplemented, under Russia's insistence that they were not a party to the conflict and therefore not bound by its terms as a major obstacle.

Meanwhile, Wang said the new Minsk agreement is a "fundamental political document that is recognized by all parties and must be implemented effectively." China will support efforts made in line with "the direction and spirit of the agreement," he said.