Daniel Hurst in Canberra
The stability of the Indo-Pacific will also be in danger if Russia is allowed to threaten
Ukraine with impunity, the US secretary of state has warned during a visit to Australia.
Antony Blinken said on Friday there were “very troubling signs of Russian escalation”, adding: “We’re in a window when an invasion could begin at any time – and to be clear, that includes during the Olympics.”
He said the US would continue to draw down its embassy in Kyiv and reiterated calls for any American citizens who remain in Ukraine to leave immediately, following
Joe Biden’s comment that “things could go crazy quickly”.
After joining with his Australian, Indian and Japanese counterparts for a meeting of the Quad in Melbourne, Blinken made the case that allowing Russia to further invade Ukraine would have far wider consequences and could embolden other countries, such as China, to pursue military aggression.
Peter Dutton labels Vladimir Putin an ageing dictator who is becoming ‘more irrational’
Read more
Russia, he said, was challenging the principles that “one country can’t simply change the borders of another by force” or “dictate to another its choices, its policies, with whom it will associate”.
“If we allow those principles to be challenged with impunity, even if it’s half the world away in Europe, that will have an impact here as well – others are watching,” Blinken told reporters.
“Others are looking to all of us to see how we respond. So that’s why it’s so important that we have this solidarity: that we do everything possible, through diplomacy, to try to avert a conflict and prevent aggression – but equally, to be resolute if Russia renews its aggression.”
Russia has accused the west of ignoring its requests for security guarantees, including an assurance that Ukraine never join Nato.
Blinken was in Melbourne for a meeting with foreign ministers of the Quad, an increasingly active diplomatic grouping that is viewed warily by
China, which sees it as an effort to contain its influence.
The meeting comes a week after China’s Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin of Russia
signed a joint statement calling on the west to “abandon the ideologised approaches of the cold war”, as the two leaders showcased their warming relationship in Beijing at the start of the Winter Olympics.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken says Russia’s actions could embolden other countries to pursue military aggression
www.theguardian.com