عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

China Says Certain Countries Must Stop ‘Fueling the Fire’ in Ukraine Conflict

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang delivers a speech during the Lanting Forum on the Global Security Initiative: China's Proposal for Solving Security Challenges held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. (AP)
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang delivers a speech during the Lanting Forum on the Global Security Initiative: China's Proposal for Solving Security Challenges held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. (AP)
TT
20
TT

China Says Certain Countries Must Stop ‘Fueling the Fire’ in Ukraine Conflict

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang delivers a speech during the Lanting Forum on the Global Security Initiative: China's Proposal for Solving Security Challenges held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. (AP)
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang delivers a speech during the Lanting Forum on the Global Security Initiative: China's Proposal for Solving Security Challenges held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. (AP)

China is "deeply worried" that the Ukraine conflict could spiral out of control, foreign minister Qin Gang said on Tuesday, and called on certain countries to stop "fueling the fire" in an apparent dig at the United States.

Beijing, which last year struck a "no limits" partnership with Moscow, has refrained from condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The United States has warned of consequences if China provides military support to Russia, which Beijing says it is not doing.

"China is deeply worried that the Ukraine conflict will continue to escalate or even spiral out of control" Qin said in a speech at a forum held at the foreign ministry.

"We urge certain countries to immediately stop fueling the fire," he said in comments that appeared to be directed at the United States, adding that they must "stop hyping up 'today Ukraine, tomorrow Taiwan'".

"We stand firmly against any form of hegemony, against any foreign interference in China's affairs."

Qin's comments came as Russia's news agency TASS said China's top diplomat Wang Yi was due to arrive in Moscow on Tuesday and ahead of a "peace speech" President Xi Jinping is expected to deliver on Friday, the anniversary of the Ukraine invasion.

Also on Tuesday, China released a paper on the Global Security Initiative (GSI), Xi's flagship security proposal which aims to uphold the principle of "indivisible security", a concept endorsed by Moscow.

Russia has insisted that Western governments respect a 1999 agreement based on the principle of "indivisible security" that no country can strengthen its own security at the expense of others.

On Monday, Wang called for a negotiated settlement to the Ukraine war during a stopover in Hungary.

The same day, US President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv in a show of solidarity, promising $500 million worth of military aid to Ukraine and additional sanctions against Russian elites to be unveiled in full this week.

Beijing has refrained from condemning Moscow's operation against Ukraine or calling it an "invasion" in line with the Kremlin, which describes the war as a "special military operation" designed to protect Russia's own security.

Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has triggered one of the deadliest European conflicts since World War Two and the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

'Lethal weapons'

The United States casts China and Russia as the two biggest nation-state threats to its security. Xi has stood by Russian President Vladimir Putin, resisting Western pressure to isolate Moscow

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned on Saturday that the United States was very concerned China is considering providing "lethal assistance" to Russia, which he told Wang "would have serious consequences in our relationship."

"There are various kinds of lethal assistance that they are at least contemplating providing, to include weapons," Blinken said in an interview with NBC News, adding that Washington would soon release more details.

The European Union's top foreign affairs official Josep Borrell on Monday warned against China sending arms to Russia, saying it would be a "red line", echoing statements from other European foreign ministers attending a meeting in Brussels.

Any Chinese weapons supplies to Russia would risk a potential escalation of the Ukraine war into a confrontation between Russia and China on the one side and Ukraine and the US-led NATO military alliance on the other.

Beijing has repeatedly accused Washington of escalating the conflict by supplying weapons to Ukraine. On Sunday during a meeting with Blinken on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Wang said the US "should promote a political solution to the crisis, instead of adding fuel to the fire".

Most Viewed

 
World

UN Warns US Aid Cuts Threaten Millions of Afghans with Famine

(FILES) Afghan men stand in a queue as they wait to receive food being distributed as an aid by the World Food Program (WFP) organization at Nawabad Kako Sahib area in Baraki Barak district of Logar Province on January 7, 2024. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)
(FILES) Afghan men stand in a queue as they wait to receive food being distributed as an aid by the World Food Program (WFP) organization at Nawabad Kako Sahib area in Baraki Barak district of Logar Province on January 7, 2024. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)
TT
20
TT

UN Warns US Aid Cuts Threaten Millions of Afghans with Famine

(FILES) Afghan men stand in a queue as they wait to receive food being distributed as an aid by the World Food Program (WFP) organization at Nawabad Kako Sahib area in Baraki Barak district of Logar Province on January 7, 2024. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)
(FILES) Afghan men stand in a queue as they wait to receive food being distributed as an aid by the World Food Program (WFP) organization at Nawabad Kako Sahib area in Baraki Barak district of Logar Province on January 7, 2024. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)

Fresh US cuts to food assistance risk worsening already widespread hunger in Afghanistan, according to the World Food Program, which warned it can support just half the people in need -- and only with half rations.
In an interview with AFP, WFP's acting country director Mutinta Chimuka urged donors to step up to support Afghanistan, which faces the world's second-largest humanitarian crisis, AFP said.

A third of the population of around 45 million people needs food assistance, with 3.1 million people on the brink of famine, the UN says.

"With what resources we have now barely eight million people will get assistance across the year and that's only if we get everything else that we are expecting from other donors," Chimuka said.

The agency already has been "giving a half ration to stretch the resources that we have", she added.

In the coming months, WFP usually would be assisting two million people "to prevent famine, so that's already a huge number that we're really worried about", Chimuka said.

Already grappling with a 40 percent drop in funding for this year globally, and seeing a decline in funding for Afghanistan in recent years, WFP has had to split the standard ration -- designed to meet the daily minimum recommended 2,100 kilocalories per person.

"It's a basic package, but it's really life-saving," said Chimuka. "And we should, as a global community, be able to provide that."
WFP, like other aid agencies, has been caught in the crosshairs of funding cuts by US President Donald Trump, who signed an executive order freezing all foreign aid for three months shortly after his inauguration in January.

Emergency food aid was meant to be exempt, but this week WFP said the United States had announced it was cutting emergency food aid for 14 countries, including Afghanistan, amounting to "a death sentence for millions of people" if implemented.

Washington quickly backtracked on the cuts for six countries, but Afghanistan -- run by Taliban authorities who fought US-led troops for decades -- was not one of them.

If additional funding doesn't come through, "Then there's the possibility that we may have to go to communities and tell them we're not able to support them. And how do they survive?"

She highlighted the high levels of unemployment and poverty in the country, one of the world's poorest where thousands of Afghans are currently being repatriated from Pakistan, many without most of their belongings or homes to go to.

'Vicious cycle'
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, this week urged international donors to keep supporting Afghanistan, saying 22.9 million needed assistance this year.

"If we want to help the Afghan people escape the vicious cycle of poverty and suffering, we must continue to have the means to address urgent needs while simultaneously laying the groundwork for long-term resilience and stability," said Indrika Ratwatte, the UN's resident and humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan, in a statement.

The statement warned that lack of international aid in Afghanistan could lead to increased migration and strain on the broader region.

The call for funding comes as other countries including Germany and Britain have also made large cuts to overseas aid.

But the Trump administration cut has been the deepest. The United States was traditionally the world's largest donor, with the biggest portion in Afghanistan -- $280 million -- going to WFP last fiscal year, according to US State Department figures.

But other UN agencies, as well as local and international NGOs are being squeezed or having to shut down completely, straining the network of organisations providing aid in Afghanistan.

The Trump administration also ended two programs -- one in Afghanistan -- with the UN Population Fund, an agency dedicated to promoting sexual and reproductive health, the agency said Monday.

And other organisations working on agriculture -- on which some 80 percent of Afghans depend to survive -- and malnutrition are impacted.

"We all need to work together," said Chimuka. "And if all of us are cut at the knees... it doesn't work."