German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has warned there would be "consequences" if China sends arms to Russia for the Ukraine war, though he is optimistic Beijing will refrain from doing so. The foreign minister made these statements during an interview with CNN, broadcast two days after the president met with the president of the United States, Joe Biden, in Washington.
US officials have warned that China could start providing arms and ammunition to Moscow, although there is no evidence that it will finally take this step, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently said. Before his trip to the United States, Scholz asked Beijing to use his influence to convince Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine.
Asked about the possibility of a possible sanction on China in the event that it finally ends up supporting Vladimir Putin's regime, Scholz replied: "I think it would have consequences, but now we are at a stage where we are making it clear that this should not It will happen, and I am relatively optimistic, that we will be successful with our application in this case, but we will have to look at it and we must be very, very cautious." However, the foreign minister has not detailed what kind of consequences China's involvement in the armed conflict would have.
Germany has the largest economy in Europe and China has been its main trading partner in recent years. “We all agree that there should be no arms handovers, and the Chinese government has declared that it will not hand over any arms,” the foreign minister replied on his return from Washington when asked about the issue.
