US, EU raise alarm over China’s ‘very substantial’ support for Russia in Ukraine war

Beijing’s ‘significant’ exports said to be used on battlefield and given in exchange for Kremlin’s sensitive military technologies

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Ukrainian rescuers try to extinguish a fire following a missile attack in the city of Lviv last week. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and the two countries have been at war ever since. Photo: AFP

Igor PatrickandRobert Delaneyin Washington

Published: 5:32am, 12 Sep 2024Updated: 11:00pm, 12 Sep 2024

The United States and European Union have voiced renewed concerns over China’s “very substantial” support for Russia’s military, warning the assistance was allowing the Kremlin to keep waging war against Ukraine and threatened global security.

The allegations followed the latest instalment of the US-EU dialogue on China and high-level consultations on the Indo-Pacific held this week in Brussels.

In their joint statement, American and EU officials cited “China’s ongoing support for Russia’s military and industrial base” through “exports of significant amounts of dual-use goods and items used … on the battlefield against Ukraine”.

After the high-level meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell told reporters that China was providing direct assistance to “sustain, build and diversify various elements of the Russian war machine”.

US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell says efforts to conceal cooperation between China and Russia in the Kremlin’s Ukraine war campaign are being made “at the highest levels of both governments”. Photo: Reuters

“These are not dual-use capabilities,” Campbell said, according to Politico. “These are basically being applied directly to the Russian war machine.”

Moscow was reciprocating by sharing sensitive military technologies with Beijing, he added, including those related to submarine operations, stealth aircraft design and missile capabilities.