Jonathan Nwokpor
In the continuing Russia-Ukraine war, there were significant points of disagreement between President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and Britain’s defense secretary, Grant Shapps.
Following the claim made by the British Defence Secretary that China is providing Russia with “lethal aid” to employ in its conflict with Ukraine,
Sullivan disputed his remarks as the two nations convened for the London Defence Conference on Wednesday.
Shapps said, “Today I can reveal that we have evidence that Russia and China are collaborating on combat equipment for use in Ukraine.”
“US and British defence intelligence can reveal that lethal aid is now flying from China to Russia and into Ukraine.
“And this is new intelligence which leads me to be able to declassify and reveal this fact today. I think it’s quite significant,” he said without providing evidence to his claim.
He insisted that both China and Russia “are covering each other’s back” by pointing out that trade between the two nations has increased by 64% since the beginning of the conflict.
“It’s time for the world to wake up. And that means translating this moment to concrete plans and capabilities. And that starts with laying the foundations for an alliance-wide increase in spending on our collective deterrent,” he said.
Sullivan, the US representative, seemed to disagree with a few of Shapps’s remarks, though.
He said the possibility that China might “provide weapons directly – lethal assistance – to Russia” had been a concern earlier, but that “we have not seen that to date”.
The US expressed worry, meanwhile, about “concern about what China is doing to fuel Russia’s war machine, not giving weapons directly, but providing inputs to Russia’s defence industrial base”, he added.
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