Russia should not go to war with Ukraine with impunity, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday after meeting the foreign ministers of Australia, Japan and India as part of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) in Delhi.
The Quad Group stressed in a joint statement the need to achieve a “comprehensive, just and lasting peace” in Ukraine in accordance with international law and the UN Charter. It condemned the use of nuclear weapons and nuclear threats as unacceptable.
Letting Russia do what it is doing in Ukraine with impunity will send a signal to would-be aggressors everywhere that they too can get away with it.
said Blinken, quoted by Reuters.
At a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Delhi that ended Thursday, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine was condemned by all members of the group except Russia and China, Reuters reported, citing Indian authorities who chaired the conference.
In the margins of the G20 meeting, Blinken had a short conversation with the head of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov. about Ukraine. It was the first meeting between the two diplomats since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022. Blinken appealed to Lavrov to allow Russia to return to the New START treaty, telling him that the US would support Ukraine “as long as it needed,” a US State Department official told reporters.
In a joint statement, the Quad ministers also expressed “serious concern” over the militarization of disputed sea areas, widely seen as an allusion to China’s actions. They also condemned North Korea’s missile tests and called for an end to the violence and the release of those arbitrarily detained by Myanmar’s military authorities.
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rm/PAP
Source: wPolityce