2023-04-14 12:40 update: 2023-04-15, 16:51
Mateusz Morawiecki. Photo PAP/EPA/DUMITRU DORU
China will cross the Rubicon if it starts to supply Russia with weapons, the Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki has said.
In an interview with the US broadcaster NBC News aired on Thursday, the third and last day of his visit to the United States, Morawiecki said that China providing lethal aid to Russia would be "a red line, the Rubicon for relations between the US and China."
"China is in close cooperation with Russia, unfortunately," Morawiecki went on to say.
Asked whether he sees the close ties between Moscow and Beijing as "a marriage of convenience", Morawiecki said that they are "either a marriage of convenience or the first step into a closer alliance which would be of huge jeopardy to the rest of the world."
Commenting on the US prediction that the war in Ukraine may drag well into 2023 and beyond, Morawiecki said "I think so, too," explaining that "Russia has huge and vast natural resources, human resources, they have a patient society, patient public opinion."
"Actually, the public opinion in Russia supports the Kremlin by and large, or the majority of the public opinion (does - PAP)," Morawiecki said, comparing the public support for the government in Russia to the situation in Nazi Germany in 1930s "when the society supported Hitler".
"This makes the situation of Putin easier, because he does not have to take into account public opinion domestically, whereas public opinion in the United States or in Europe is much more 'yin-yang'," the prime minister went on to say.
Morawiecki admitted that the chances of bringing Putin before the International Criminal Court, which recently issued an arrest warrant for him, were slim, but added that "all such symbolic things do matter as well."
Referring to the scandal of leaked Pentagon documents concerning the Russia-Ukraine war, Morawiecki said that it was "unfortunate", but "these things happen... every now and again in every country."
Despite the leak he expressed his continued trust in US intelligence services by saying that "I simply trust our best ally, which is the United States." (PAP)
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