Blinken meets Wang Yi, warns Beijing against helping Russia
Munich, February 19
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned China that its “material support” for Russia’s war against Ukraine would attract sanctions and condemned the “unacceptable violation” of American sovereignty by a Chinese spy balloon as he met Beijing’s top diplomat Wang Yi.
Blinken and Wang held talks on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany on Saturday, in the first high-level meeting since the spy balloon row began earlier this month.
China warned the United States on Sunday it would “bear all the consequences” if it escalated the controversy over a Chinese balloon that the US military shot down this month.
Beijing will “follow through to the end” in the event “the US insists on taking advantage of the issue”, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
“The Secretary directly spoke to the unacceptable violation of US sovereignty and international law by the People’s Republic of China high-altitude surveillance balloon in US territorial airspace, underscoring that this irresponsible act must never occur again,” State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said.
“During the meeting, Blinken made clear the United States will not stand for any violation of our sovereignty, and that the Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon programme — which has intruded into the airspace of more than 40 countries across five continents — has been exposed to the world,” he said.
The relations between the US and China strained further after Washington said Beijing flew a spy balloon over America before US fighter jets shot it down on President Joe Biden’s orders.
The balloon incident prompted Blinken to postpone a planned visit to Beijing. The February 5-6 trip would have been the first by a US secretary of state to China in five years and was seen by both countries as an opportunity to stabilise their strained ties.
The meeting between the two senior officials came hours after Wang on Saturday renewed Beijing’s criticism of the US for shooting down what Washington says was a Chinese spy balloon, arguing at the conference in Germany that the move doesn’t point to US strength. — Agencies
