Nato warns China over role as ‘decisive enabler’ helping Russia in Ukraine war

Unprecedented and blunt joint declaration from security alliance at Washington summit calls on Beijing to uphold UN purposes and principles

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Nato warns China over role as ‘decisive enabler’ helping Russia in Ukraine war

Khushboo Razdanin Washington

Published: 3:29am, 11 Jul 2024Updated: 11:48am, 13 Jul 2024

In a first, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has issued a direct warning to China over its alleged assistance to Russia in the war against Ukraine.

The blunt joint declaration by the 32-member security alliance on Wednesday squarely blamed Beijing for fuelling Moscow’s aggression against Kyiv, calling the world’s second-largest economy a “decisive enabler” of the Kremlin’s “war effort”.

“We call on the PRC, as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council with a particular responsibility to uphold the purposes and principles of the UN charter, to cease all material and political support to Russia’s war effort,” it read.

The statement, which followed an annual meeting of the alliance’s head of states, said China “cannot enable the largest war in Europe in recent history without this negatively impacting its interests and reputation”.

Nato heads of state pose for a family photo in Washington. Photo: AFP

Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary general, described the language as the “strongest message Nato allies have ever sent on China’s contributions to Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine”.

“The difference between sending military weapons and doing what China already does is not that big, because they provide tools, the equipment, the technology, the microprocessors, the microelectronics that Russia needs to put together these weapons systems,” Stoltenberg said when asked what actions could follow the warning.