China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, has rebuffed Nato’s “groundless accusations” that Beijing is assisting Russia in its war on Ukraine. He also cautioned the Western alliance against provoking confrontation.

Mr. Wang’s remarks, made during a call with his Dutch counterpart, followed a declaration by Nato leaders gathered in Washington DC, which mentioned the ongoing conflict. The declaration accused China of being a “decisive enabler” of Russia by providing “large-scale support for Russia’s defence industrial base,” marking some of the alliance’s harshest criticism of Beijing to date.

Nato leaders urged China to cease “all material and political support” for Russia’s war effort, including the supply of dual-use materials, which can be used for both civilian and military purposes. Western states have previously alleged that Beijing has transferred drone and missile technology and satellite imagery to Moscow. The US estimates that about 70% of the machine tools and 90% of the microelectronics Russia imports now come from China.

Beijing was also accused of engaging in “malicious cyber and hybrid activities, including disinformation” against Nato states.

At a press conference on Thursday, US President Joe Biden said he had discussed with other leaders the need to outline the consequences for China. “China has to understand that if they are supplying Russia with information and capacity, working with North Korea and others to help Russia and [their] armament, they’re not going to benefit economically as a consequence of that,” he said. “I think you’ll see that some of our European friends are going to be curtailing their investment in China.”

President Biden pointed out that Russia had been seeking weapons from China and North Korea. He added that Nato states were considering a new policy to transform the West into an “industrial base” for munitions and to develop new weapons systems.