China deepens diplomatic support for Russia at G-20 meeting

Joel Gehrke

March 02, 11:46 AM March 02, 11:46 AM

China helped Russia block a joint G-20 statement that signaled opposition to the war in Ukraine, just a few months after Beijing backed a similar statement at a gathering of world leaders in Indonesia.

“You have virtually everyone in the G-20 signing on to what had already been stated in Bali, and the two holdouts, of course, were Russia and China,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in New Delhi. “So, I think we see broad consensus across the G-20 to work together, to act together, and to make commitments together.”

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China reinforced Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opposition to the censorious language at the G-20 foreign ministers summit in India. Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping allowed the G-20 to memorialize international opposition to the war in November when he met with President Joe Biden on the sidelines of a G-20 leaders meeting that Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attend.

“Two countries, Russia and China, did not agree,” Indian external affairs ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said. “You need to ask them about why exactly, on how their perspective is, or are they no longer with that text from Bali? You have to ask them.”

The diplomatic shift comes in the context of Western warnings that Beijing may provide Russia with weapons for use in the war — a line of support, Blinken emphasized, that would provoke the U.S. and its allies to impose sanctions.

“I'm not going to detail what they would be, but of course, we have sanctions authorities of various kinds — that would certainly be one of the things that we and others would look at,” Blinken said Thursday. “This concern that China is considering providing lethal military assistance to Russia, this is a shared concern. And many other partners have raised this and not just raised this with us, but it's my understanding have raised it directly with China, including here today in Delhi.”

The Bali statement itself was a compromise document that acknowledged the United Nations General Assembly votes against the war but did not bind China to any specific rebuke.

“Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy — constraining growth, increasing inflation, disrupting supply chains, heightening energy and food insecurity, and elevating financial stability risks,” the statement said. "There were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions.”