Scholz’s comments were made in an interview with CNN that aired today, two days after German Chancellor met with US President Joe Biden in Washington. Asked by Fareed Zakaria about the outcome of the war, the German leader said it is “necessary for Putin to understand that he will not succeed with this invasion and his imperialist aggression”.
US officials recently warned that China could begin supplying arms and ammunition to Moscow for the war in Ukraine. Before the trip, Scholz urged Beijing not to send weapons and instead use its influence to pressure Russia to withdraw troops from Ukraine.
Asked by CNN if there would be sanctions against China if it helped Russia, Scholz replied: “I think there will be consequences, but we’re at a stage now where we’ve made it clear that this shouldn’t happen and I’m relatively optimistic that we will succeed with our request in this case, but we will have to look at it and we will have to be very, very careful”.
Scholz did not elaborate on the nature of any consequences.
Germany is the largest economy in Europe and China has been the most important trading partner in recent years.
Back in Germany and after his office met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Scholz was questioned again on the subject.
“We all agreed that no weapons should be handed over, and the Chinese government has stated that they will not hand over any,” the chancellor replied. “That’s what we demand and we observe,” he added.
Von der Leyen also said he “had no evidence for this so far” and on whether the European Union would penalize China for giving military aid to Russia, he said “it is a hypothetical question that can only be answered when it becomes reality and fact”.
Source: DN
