US urges China to stop supporting Russia in Ukraine war

WASHINGTON

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday urged China to stop supporting Russia in the ongoing Ukraine war.

"We're looking at countries that are supporting Russia's defense industrial base, which is allowing Russia to continue the war, including China," Blinken said at a news conference in Washington with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

Seventy percent of machine tools that Russia is importing are coming from China, Bliken said, adding that 90% of microelectronics are also coming from China.

"And that has enabled Russia to keep that defense industrial base going, to keep the war machine going, to keep the war going. So, that has to stop," said Blinken, adding the US continues to provide the necessary support to Ukraine.

"We want to make sure that Ukraine is a success, that it stands strongly on its own feet, militarily, economically, democratically, and that's exactly what we're enabling Ukraine to do," he stressed.

Stoltenberg said Russia's war is a "brutal assault" on a peaceful democratic nation.

"This war is propped up by China, North Korea and Iran. They want to see the United States fail. They want to see NATO fail. If they succeed in Ukraine, it will make us more vulnerable and the world more dangerous.

"So, our support to Ukraine is not charity. It is in our own security interest," he said.

Stoltenberg will meet members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and members of the Senate NATO Observer Group later Tuesday.

He will travel to Ottawa on Wednesday to meet Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Stoltenberg will return to Washington on Thursday to meet National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and US lawmakers.