MUNICH: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday warned top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi of consequences should China provide material support to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying in an interview after the two met that Washington was concerned Beijing was considering supplying weapons to Moscow.
The top diplomats of the two superpowers met at an undisclosed location on the sidelines of a global security conference in Munich, just hours after Wang scolded Washington as “hysterical” in a running dispute over the US downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon.
Relations between the two countries have been fraught since Washington said China flew a spy balloon over the continental US before American fighter jets shot it down on President Joe Biden’s orders. The dispute also came at a time when the West is closely watching Beijing’s response to the Ukraine war.
In an interview to be aired on Sunday morning on NBC News’ “Meet the Press with Chuck Todd,” Blinken said the United States was very concerned that China is considering providing lethal support to Russia and that he made clear to Wang that “would have serious consequences in our relationship.”
“There are various kinds of lethal assistance that they are at least contemplating providing, to include weapons,” Blinken said, adding that Washington would soon release more details.
Wang told Blinken the United States must “face up to and resolve the damage” to bilateral relations “caused by the indiscriminate use of force,” according to a brief statement on Sunday by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Wang was referring to the recent shootdown of what the United States called a spy balloon but Beijing said was a weather-monitoring craft.
Speaking to reporters in a briefing call, a senior State Department official said China was trying to “have it both ways” by claiming it wants to contribute to peace and stability but at the same time taking “concerning” steps to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Blinken “was quite blunt in warning about the implications and consequences of China providing material support to Russia or assisting Russia with systematic sanctions evasion,” the senior official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Russia and China signed a “no limits” partnership last February shortly before Russian forces invaded Ukraine, and their economic links have boomed as Moscow’s connections with the West have shrivelled.
The West has been wary of China’s response to the Ukraine war, with some warning that a Russian victory would color China’s actions toward Taiwan. China has refrained from condemning the war or calling it an “invasion.”
Earlier, speaking at a panel at the conference, Wang reiterated a call for dialogue and suggested European countries “think calmly” about how to end the war.
He also said there were “some forces that seemingly don’t want negotiations to succeed, or for the war to end soon,” without specifying to whom he was referring.
NO APOLOGY
Blinken and Wang’s meeting came hours after the top Chinese diplomat took a swipe at the United States, accusing it of violating international norms with “hysterical” behavior by shooting down the balloon.
The balloon’s flight this month over US territory triggered an uproar in Washington and prompted Blinken to postpone a planned visit to Beijing. That Feb. 5-6 trip would have been the first by a US secretary of state to China in five years and was seen by both sides as an opportunity to stabilize increasingly fraught ties.
“To have dispatched an advanced fighter jet to shoot down a balloon with a missile, such behavior is unbelievable, almost hysterical,” Wang said.
“There are so many balloons all over the world, and various countries have them. So, is the United States going to shoot all of them down?” he said.
China reacted angrily when the US military downed the 200-foot (60-meter) balloon on Feb. 4, saying it was for monitoring weather conditions and had blown off course. Washington said it was clearly a surveillance balloon with a massive undercarriage holding electronics.
Questions had swirled as to whether Blinken and Wang would use the conference in Munich as a chance to reengage in-person, and the State Department only confirmed the hour-long meeting after it had ended.
In the interview with NBC, Blinken said Wang did not apologize for the balloon’s flight.
“I told him quite simply that that was unacceptable and can never happen again,” Blinken said, referring to the balloon’s violation of US air space.
“There was no apology,” he said, adding that he had not discussed with Wang rescheduling his trip to China.
Washington had been hoping to put a “floor” under relations that hit a dangerous low in August with China’s reaction to a Taiwan visit by then-US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
But Craig Singleton, a China expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, said while Wang’s comments at the conference were likely aimed at deflecting embarrassment over the balloon incident, the lack of a strong response from Washington “increases China’s appetite for risk in future disputes.”
“Blinken and Wang’s meeting will not change the downward trajectory in the US-China relationship. It’s clear there is almost no trust between the two sides,” Singleton said.
Blinken warns China’s Wang Yi against aiding Russia in Ukraine
https://arab.news/n6uwd
Blinken warns China’s Wang Yi against aiding Russia in Ukraine
- Top diplomats meet at an undisclosed location on the sidelines of a global security conference in Munich
- United States very concerned that China is considering providing lethal support to Russia
Vatican’s ‘trial of the century’ resumes after prosecutors suffer embarrassing setbacks on appeal
VATICAN CITY: The appeals phase of the Vatican’s “trial of the century” resumed Tuesday after a pair of setbacks for the pope’s prosecutors that could have big repercussions on the outcome of the troubled case.
The case concerns the once-powerful Cardinal Angelo Becciu and eight other defendants, who were convicted of a handful of financial crimes in 2023, after a sprawling two-year trial.
However, the Vatican’s high Court of Cassation recently upheld a lower court’s decision to throw out the prosecutors’ appeal entirely. That means the defendants can only expect to see their verdicts and sentences improved if not overturned.
On the same day as the Cassation ruling, the Vatican’s chief prosecutor, Alessandro Diddi, also dropped months of objections and abruptly resigned from the case, rather than face the possibility that the Cassation court would order him removed.
At issue is Diddi’s role in a now-infamous set of WhatsApp chats that have thrown the credibility of the entire trial into question. The chats, which document a yearslong, behind-the-scenes effort to target Becciu, suggest questionable conduct by Vatican police, Vatican prosecutors and Pope Francis himself.
Several defense attorneys had argued that the chats showed Diddi was hardly impartial in his handling of evidence and witnesses and was unfit to continue in his role.
Diddi rejected their arguments as “unfounded” and bitterly complained to the Cassation’s cardinal judges. But he recused himself regardless “to prevent insinuations and falsehoods about me from being exploited to damage and prejudice the process of ascertaining the truth and affirming justice.”
Had the Cassation actually ruled against Diddi and found that his role was incompatible, the entire case could have resulted in a mistrial or a declaration of nullity. As it is, the appeals court has ruled that Diddi’s prosecutorial activities were valid, even if he subsequently recused himself.
London property and more
The original trial opened in 2021 with its main focus the Vatican’s investment of 350 million euros ($413 million) in a London property. Prosecutors alleged brokers and Vatican monsignors fleeced the Holy See of tens of millions of euros in fees and commissions to acquire the property, and then extorted the Holy See for 15 million euros ($16.5 million) to cede control of it.
The original investigation spawned two main tangents involving Becciu, a once-powerful cardinal, who was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to 5½ years in prison. The tribunal convicted eight other defendants of embezzlement, abuse of office, fraud and other charges, but acquitted them on many counts.
All the defendants maintained their innocence and appealed. Prosecutors also appealed, since the tribunal largely threw out their overarching theory of a grand conspiracy to defraud the Holy See and instead convicted the defendants of a handful of serious but secondary charges.
Diddi had seen the appeals as an opportunity to prosecute his initial case again. In filing the appeal, he merely attached his original request for convictions. But the appeals court threw that out on the grounds that it lacked the “specificity” required by law in an appeals motion.
It was an embarrassing procedural error that the Cassation court, in its Jan. 9 ruling, refused to forgive.
Pope’s role
The appeals now proceeds on other defense arguments, with a next line of attack focusing on Francis’ role in the investigation. During the trial, defense attorneys had argued their clients couldn’t receive a fair trial in an absolute monarchy where the pope wields supreme legislative, executive and judicial power, and Francis used those powers during the investigation.
At issue are four secret executive decrees Francis signed in 2019 and 2020, during the early days of the investigation, that gave Vatican prosecutors wide-ranging powers, including the unchecked use of wiretapping and the right to deviate from existing laws.
The decrees only came to light right before trial and were never officially published. They provided no rationale or time frame for the surveillance, nor oversight of the wiretapping by an independent judge, and were passed specifically for this investigation.
Legal scholars have said the secrecy of the laws and their ad hoc nature violated a basic tenet of the right to a fair trial requiring the “equality of arms” between defense and prosecution. In this case, the defense was completely unaware of the prosecution’s new investigative powers. Even Vatican legal officials have privately conceded that Francis’ failure to publish the decrees was deeply problematic.
Diddi had argued that Francis’ decrees provided unspecified “guarantees” for the suspects, and the tribunal originally rejected the defense motions arguing they violated the defendants’ fundamental right to a fair trial. In a somewhat convoluted decision, the judges ruled that no violation of the principle of legality had occurred since Francis had made the laws.
Under the church’s canon law, the pope can’t be judged by anyone but God. But the pope also can’t promulgate laws that violate divine law, setting up a potential dilemma if the court were to ultimately find that Francis’ decrees violated the defendants’ fundamental rights.
The Vatican has insisted that the defendants all received a fair trial.
