Internacional

China, Russia warn USA of consequences over sanctions

por Amoldo Sanabria·Setiembre 23, 2018 06:21
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China summoned the US ambassador in Beijing and postponed joint military talks in protest against a USA decision to sanction a Chinese military agency and its director for buying Russian fighter jets and a surface-to-air missile system.

China told the USA it should remove the sanctions on its military or "bear the consequences".

Top officials in the security establishment in New Delhi are keenly tracking developments as the United States imposed sanctions on China for buying Russian Sukhoi fighter jets and S-400 missiles.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, however, said the sanctions "seriously violated the basic norms of global relations and seriously damaged the relations between China and the United States", NBC News reports.

The Chinese military denounced the sanctions on Saturday, expressing "strong indignation and resolute opposition", a defence ministry spokesperson told state-run news agency Xinhua.

"The Chinese side has made the decision to immediately call back People's Liberation Army Navy head, Shen Jinlong, who was taking part in the 23rd International Seapower Symposium and planned to make a visit to the United States", the ministry said in statement as cited by Ria Novosti.

Countries including India and Turkey have decried that it violates their ability to make prudent decisions about military procurement, while officials in the European Union have raised concerns about how the sanctions could affect gas pipeline projects with Russian Federation.

All of them - defence related firms, officers of the GRU military intelligence agency, and people associated with the Saint Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency disinformation group - have been on previous U.S. sanctions lists.

U.S. officials said that the United States could consider similar action against other countries taking delivery of Russian fighter jets and missiles.

Sources said that negotiations with Russian Federation for the S-400 missile deal are nearing conclusion.

"It appears that it has become a sort of national pastime there", he added, noting the latest round of anti-Russian measures was the 60th since 2011.

The Kremlin dismissed the sanctions as an "unfair" move to undercut Russian Federation as a major arms exporter.

"China is the first country in the world to use both of those systems", the official said.

U.S. officials said the imposition of penalties against China was the first time a third-party country was punished under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, the sanctions law passed in 2017.

What's the endgame in the US-China trade war?

The United States already has imposed tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, and China has retaliated on an equal amount of US goods.