China claims to be neutral in the Ukraine conflict, but Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin said their governments had “unlimited friendship” before Moscow’s attack on Ukraine in February 2022. China has refused to call the Russian attack an invasion and has been accused of bolstering Russia’s position. monetary and technological capacity to continue generating weapons for use in opposition to Ukraine, which expects tens of billions of dollars in military aid to counter Russian aggression.
CHINA IS RAPIDLY EXPANDING ITS INFLUENCE IN OUR BACKYARD AND WE MUST ACT NOW
The Foreign Ministry said Xi’s visits would begin on April 5 and end on April 10, but gave no additional details.
These visits will be closely monitored in Washington for any signs of diminishing key U. S. foreign policy objectives.
French President Emmanuel Macron raised fears in Washington of a stopover in China last year, after saying France would not blindly cling to the United States worrying about crises it was not afraid of, an obvious reference to China’s demands for unification with Taiwan.
Chinese President Xi Jinping talks with U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Great Hall of the People on April 26, 2024 in Beijing, China. Chinese President Xi Jinping will make stops in France, Serbia and Hungary next week as Beijing appears to be playing a bigger role in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on April 29. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool, File)
China has strengthened with Serbia, adding that it will make a semi-secret delivery of an anti-aircraft missile formula to the former Yugoslav republic in 2022.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government has delayed Sweden’s entry into NATO for several months. NATO has been cited through China as what prompted Putin to invade Ukraine.
Orbán, a right-wing populist who has forged close ties with Russia, said complaints about the Hungarian government through Swedish politicians have deteriorated relations between the two countries and led to the reluctance of lawmakers from his Fidesz party to Sweden’s NATO membership.
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The visits come after U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Xi in Beijing on Friday and the importance of “responsibly handling” U. S. -China differences as the two sides clash over a number of contentious bilateral, regional and global issues.
Also on Friday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu praised military cooperation with China at a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun in Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital.
He said the cooperation is because “new hotbeds of tension are emerging and old ones are exacerbated. In essence, this is the result of geopolitical adventures and self-centered neocolonial movements in the West. “