Connect with us

Latest News

U.S. warns Chinese firms helping Russia against potential Ukraine sanctions

Published

on

(Last Updated On: February 4, 2022)

The United States warned Chinese firms on Thursday they would face consequences if they sought to evade any export controls imposed on Moscow in the event of Russia invading Ukraine.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price made the remark after China’s Foreign Ministry said China and Russia had coordinated their positions on Ukraine during a meeting between their foreign ministers in Beijing on Thursday.

“We have an array of tools that we can deploy if we see foreign companies, including those in China, doing their best to backfill U.S. export control actions, to evade them, to get around them,” Price told a regular news briefing.

Western countries say any invasion of Ukraine by Russia would bring sanctions on Moscow and Washington has said it is prepared to impose financial sanctions as well as export-control measures.

White House national security official Peter Harrell said on Wednesday that Washington was working on the export-control measures with allies in Asia, including Japan and South Korea.

Price said Russia should know that a closer relationship with Beijing would not make up for the consequences imposed in response to an invasion.

“If Russia thinks that it will be in a position … to mitigate some of those consequences, by a closer relationship with (China), that is not the case. It will actually make the Russian economy, in many ways, more brittle,” he said.

“If you deny yourself the ability to transact with the West, to import with the West, from Europe, from the United States, you are going to significantly degrade your productive capacity and your innovative potential.”

Price said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi had an extended discussion on potential implications of Russian action against Ukraine in a phone call last week.

Asked to comment on Price’s remarks, Liu Pengyu, the spokesman for China’s Washington embassy, replied: “We have noted relevant reports. Creating tensions does no good to easing the Ukraine crisis, but only adds more uncertainties to the region and the whole world. China is firmly opposed to this.”

China’s foreign ministry earlier said Wang met with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and expressed “understanding and support” for Russia’s position on security regarding Russia’s relationship with the United States and NATO.

It said both sides coordinated their positions on regional issues of common concern, such as Ukraine, Afghanistan and the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

The U.N. Security Council is due to meet on Friday at the request of the United States and Britain after North Korea’s launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile last weekend.

The United States has been pushing for more international sanctions on North Korea over a recent spate of missile tests, but last month China and Russia delayed a U.S. bid to impose U.N. sanctions on five North Koreans linked to their country’s weapons programs.

Lavrov is in Beijing with President Vladimir Putin, who will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday before attending the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Latest News

Girls’ education is a ‘vital issue’ for Afghanistan: Karzai

Published

on

(Last Updated On: April 25, 2024)

Former president Hamid Karzai said in a meeting with Iran’s ambassador and special representative, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, that education of girls was a “vital issue” for Afghanistan.

Karzai said he appreciated Iran’s cooperation and its standing with the Afghan people, especially Iran’s contributions to education in Afghanistan.

During the meeting, Karzai said peace and stability in the region are in the interest of all regional countries.

Continue Reading

Latest News

Uzbekistan’s humanitarian aid arrives in Balkh

Published

on

(Last Updated On: April 25, 2024)

A shipment of humanitarian aid from Uzbekistan was handed over on Thursday to the local officials of Balkh province in the trade port of Hairatan.

Local authorities said the aid, which includes flour, oil, wheat, sugar and meat, has been handed over by Uzbekistan’s Surkhandarya governor to the governor of Balkh.

The governor of Surkhandarya stated the purpose of sending this aid was to support the people of Afghanistan and stressed the need for the development of good relations between the two countries.

Continue Reading

Latest News

Afghanistan’s problems caused more damage to Pakistan than 3 wars with India: Durrani

Published

on

(Last Updated On: April 25, 2024)

Islamabad’s special envoy for Afghanistan Asif Durrani said on Wednesday that Pakistan has suffered more due to Afghanistan’s internal situation than Pakistan has suffered in three wars with India in terms of blood spilt and finances drained.

Durrani said at a one-day International Conference titled “Pakistan in the Emerging Geopolitical Landscape”, which was organized by the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) and the German Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), that over 80,000 Pakistanis died in the two decades of the War on Terror and that his country was still counting its dead and injured.

“After the withdrawal of NATO forces, it was hoped that peace in Afghanistan would bring peace to the region. However, such expectations were short-lived,” he said.

He also stated that attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group on Pakistan’s border areas increased by 65 percent, while suicide attacks increased by 500 percent.

“The TTP’s enhanced attacks on Pakistan while using Afghan soil have been a serious concern for Pakistan. Another worrying aspect is the participation of Afghan nationals in these attacks,” he said.

Durrani also said Pakistan had suffered geopolitically since the Soviet Union invaded the neighboring country.

“The post-9/11 world order has negatively impacted Pakistan. Apart from losing 80,000 citizens’ lives, including 8,000 law enforcement agency personnel, the country’s economic opportunity cost is estimated at $150 billion,” Durrani said.

Talking about the future outlook for Pakistan in the regional context, Durrani said that while “our eastern neighbor is likely to continue with its anti-Pakistan pursuits, the western border poses an avoidable irritant in the short to medium term.”

However, he said Pakistan can overcome its difficulties with Afghanistan, including the TTP challenge.

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2022 Ariana News. All rights reserved!