National security adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday warned that there could be costs for China, too, if the country is seen as backing a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The comments come just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping stood side by side at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. The more than 5,000 word statement released following the Putin-Xi meeting said the “friendship between the two States has no limits” and that “there are no ‘forbidden’ areas of cooperation.”
The U.S. has warned Moscow of “severe economic costs” if troops move across Ukraine’s border. And those costs could affect China as well, Sullivan said on ABC’s “This Week,” though he said he believes China understands it is not positioned to “compensate Russia for the economic losses that would come from our sanctions.”
“If Russia does choose to move forward, not only will it come at a strategic cost to Russia, but if China is seen as having supported it, it will come at some costs to China as well in the eyes of the world, in the eyes of Europe and in the eyes of other countries who are looking on now and sending a clear message that they would prefer to see diplomacy over war,” Sullivan said.
