Blinken slams Russian cooperation with North Korea, Iran, China

Washington: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated Washington’s concerns about Russia’s cooperation with North Korea, Iran and China amid the war in Ukraine, stressing that it is “not good for your reputation” to work closely with Moscow.

Blinken made the comments amid ongoing concerns about regional and global security risks posed by growing military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow and Beijing’s perceived support for Russia’s defense industry, Yonhap news agency reported.

“It is also true that the Russians have found solutions, particularly in their relationship with North Korea and Iran,” Blinken said in remarks at a forum hosted by the Aspen Strategy Group.

“And unfortunately, with China, they have found ways to keep the defense industry going so that they can continue the aggression against Ukraine,” he added.

Commenting on Russia’s closer ties with North Korea, Iran and China, the secretary said the move is something that has been “in the works for a long time” and may have been accelerated as a result of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Blinken stressed the reputational problem that comes with supporting Russia’s war effort, and he called for a large international coalition to support Ukraine’s defense and territorial integrity efforts.

“It’s not exactly good for your reputation to work closely with Russia… So I think China is very uncomfortable in the position it’s in,” he said.

In addition, he highlighted the intensification of cooperation between the US and its European and Indo-Pacific partners in the heat of the Russian war in Ukraine, calling it “remarkable”.

“We’ve built convergence across the Atlantic, we’ve built it across the Pacific, and we’ve built it between the Atlantic and the Pacific,” he said. “So I would put our teams and the countries that we’ve worked with above anything that Russia has been able to put together.”

Blinken warned that China cannot say it wants better relations with Europe “when in fact it is helping to fuel the greatest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War.”