BEIJING: China has urged the United States, Russia and all other parties to stay calm and refrain from doing things that agitate tensions and hype up the crisis over Ukraine issue.
Speaking to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on telephone, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said, Russia’s security concerns over growing tensions in Europe regarding Ukraine should be taken seriously.
He said all parties should completely abandon the Cold War mentality and form a balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism through negotiation.
He also urged the US to stop playing with fire on the issue of Taiwan.
On Tuesday, a US plane carrying military equipment and munitions landed in Kyiv, the third installment of a $200 million package to shore up Ukraine’s defenses. The Pentagon has put on alert about 8,500 U.S. troops in Europe and the United States to be ready to deploy to NATO’s eastern flank if needed.
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Russia said it was watching with great concern and accused Washington of fuelling tensions over Ukraine, repeating its line that the crisis was being driven by U.S. and NATO actions rather than by its own build-up of forces near the Ukrainian border.
Biden said on Tuesday he may deploy US troops in the nearer term but ruled out sending unilateral US forces to Ukraine, which is not a NATO member. “There is not going to be any American forces moving into Ukraine,” he said.
