According to the Ukrainian president, Chinese President Xi Jinping assured him by phone that he would refrain from selling arms to Russia. US President Joe Biden has insisted that the US will not support Ukraine in its use of long-range weapons.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Chinese President Xi Jinping has promised not to sell arms to Russia. Zelensky confirmed this in a phone call on Thursday at a joint press conference with US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy. “I spoke to the Chinese President on the phone. He said he would not sell weapons to Russia. We will see. Zelensky did not specify when this conversation took place.
US President Joe Biden has insisted that he remains opposed to the deployment of long-range weapons in Ukraine. The United States will not support Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons to strike inside Russia, he said. “It makes a lot of sense that Ukraine is able to eliminate or combat everything that comes across the border. As far as long-range weapons are concerned, we haven’t changed our position.
On the sidelines of the G7 summit, US President Biden and his Ukrainian counterpart Zelensky met to sign a bilateral defense pact. APA / AFP / Mandel Nagan
The United States and Ukraine signed a defense pact
Zelensky described the defense agreement between the US and Ukraine signed at the summit as an important step towards NATO membership for his country. The agreement “recognizes that the United States supports Ukraine’s future NATO membership and recognizes that our defense agreement is a bridge to Ukraine’s NATO membership.”
At a recent summit, the US and Ukraine signed a ten-year bilateral security agreement. The agreement commits Washington to training the Ukrainian military, providing defense equipment, joint exercises and cooperation in the defense sector – but not to the deployment of US military forces. Kiev has previously concluded bilateral agreements with Germany, France, Spain and Great Britain.
There are no US forces in Ukraine
As expected, the agreement contained no commitments to deploy US forces to defend Ukraine. Biden has always categorically rejected this — despite recent appeals by French President Emmanuel Macron to send military trainers there. According to the US government, this is to ensure that Ukraine can continue to defend itself. The agreement does not make any commitment to supply specific weapons systems. The US government viewed the agreement with Kiev as a message to Moscow that it had pledged continued and long-term support for Ukraine. (APA/Reuters)