Xi’s call with Putin ends with birthday wishes; Biden call with Zelensky ends with $1B in new arms
(Originally published June 16 in “What in the World“) U.S. President Joe Biden got off a 40-minute phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and approved another $1 billion in arms, including anti-ship rocket systems, artillery rockets, howitzers and ammunition, to help Ukraine stave off Russian victory in the eastern Donbas region.
The new package brings to $5.6 billion the total price tag on U.S. military aid sent to Ukraine since the invasion began and will for the first time supply Ukraine with Harpoon anti-ship missiles to help Ukraine defend what bit of Black Sea coastline it still holds. Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom have all pledged additional weapons, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said after meeting fellow members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Brussels.
Kyiv’s response? Not enough. But NATO is worried Ukrainian forces lack the training to use many of the advanced weapon systems, and that supplying them may leave the West short of weapons itself. France, Germany, and Italy also want Kyiv to negotiate with Moscow, which Zelensky rejects, instead questioning the West’s resolve to help it. How long, one wonders, before Western “advisers” arrive in Kyiv to help Ukrainian troops read those instruction manuals. Two U.S. military veterans volunteering in Ukraine have gone missing and are feared captured by the Russians, and now serve as propaganda weapons for either side.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi are due to meet with Zelensky today in Kyiv. Just to accentuate the economic pain being inflicted on Europe, Russia’s Gazprom on Wednesday further restricted natural gas supplies to Germany and Italy.
Speaking of phone calls, China’s President Xi Jinping celebrated his 69th birthday yesterday by calling his fellow 69-year-old pal, Russian President Vladimir Putin. Xi reiterated China’s support for Russia’s justifications for invading Ukraine, without condoning it and calling for a peaceful settlement of the crisis.
From Beijing’s perspective, Putin is fighting the good fight against U.S.-led, global liberal interventionism, so every day Washington and Moscow spent fighting over Ukraine is a day the U.S. isn’t countering China’s strategic advances in the Pacific. With the U.S. distracted by Europe and the Middle East and having under-invested in its Asian defenses and intelligence networks for years, academics warn that China is now better-positioned to win a conflict with the U.S. in its own backyard.
Officials in Congress and the White House are concerned they may be right. Though China hasn’t fought in any war for 40 years, it has expanded and modernized its armed forces and now has the world’s largest navy, is building its nuclear arsenal and has developed hypersonic missiles.