US President Joe Biden on Thursday (local time) said that he has amply made it clear to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping of the potentially dire economic consequences if China provides assistance to Russia.
On the possibility of China providing assistance to Russia, Biden said he had a "very straightforward conversation" with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week on the topic.
He made these remarks on the Russian invasion of Ukraine during a news conference after a NATO summit and Group of Seven meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday.
He said he "made no threats," but did make clear that Xi "understood the consequences of him helping Russia."
He said he pointed out the consequences of Russia's behavior, and pointed out that China had sought to develop stronger economic ties with the West.
He said he told Xi "he'd be putting himself at significant jeopardy in those aims, if, in fact, he were to move forward."
"I think that China understands that its economic future is much more closely tied to the West than it is to Russia. And so I am hopeful that he does not get engaged," Biden said.
Moreover, Biden while speaking of the conversation that he held with the Chinese President last Friday said that China had sought to develop stronger economic ties with the West.
Calling Russia and Ukraine the "breadbasket" of Europe, Biden said that food shortages will be "real". Biden in remarks after an emergency NATO meeting said, "The price of the sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia. It's imposed upon an awful lot of countries as well, including European countries and our country as well."
"We had a long discussion in the G7 with ... both the United States, which has a significant -- the third-largest producer of wheat in the world -- as well as Canada, which is also a major, major producer. And we both talked about how we could increase and disseminate more rapidly food ... In addition to that, we talked about urging all the European countries and everyone else to end trade restrictions on sending, limitations on sending food abroad. So we are in the process of working out with our European friends what it would be, what it would take to help alleviate the concerns relative to food shortages," he said.
Biden also said that he hopes to visit the Ukrainian refugee when he visits Poland on Friday. "I plan on attempting to see those folks, as well as I, hope I'm going to be able to see -- guess I'm not supposed to say where I'm going, am I. I hope I get to see a lot of people," Biden said at a news conference in Brussels.
Replying to a question where the reporter said "deterrence did not work" Biden said, "The maintenance of sanctions -- the maintenance of sanctions, the increasing the pain and the demonstration of why I asked for this NATO meeting today is to be sure that after a month, we will sustain what we're doing, not just next month, the following month, but for the remainder of this entire year. That's what will stop him."
Furthermore, Biden said that he believes Russia should be removed from the Group of 20. "My answer is yes," Biden said during a news conference when asked about whether Russia should be removed. "It depends on the G20. That was raised today, and I raised the possibility that, if that can't be done - if Indonesia and others do not agree - then we should, in my view, ask to have both Ukraine be able to attend the meetings as well as ... basically (having) Ukraine being able to attend the G20 meeting and observe," he said.
( With inputs from ANI )
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