“We cannot reasonably believe that China is impartial” to Ukraine, a White House spokesman said on Tuesday, in the most direct US criticism yet of China’s offer to mediate in the conflict, AFP and Agerpres reported.

John KirbyPhoto: – / Editorial Shutterstock / Profimedia

Beijing “did not condemn” the Russian invasion, “it did not stop buying Russian oil,” said White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.

He also accused Beijing of “spreading Russian propaganda” that the war in Ukraine was the result of Western aggression, while Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping on Tuesday welcomed the entry into a “new era” of their “special” relationship.

The spokesman estimated that the two countries are not connected by a real “union” but by a “marriage of convenience”.

China and Russia “want to change the rules” that govern the international order, John Kirby also said.

He assured that the United States still wants to maintain channels of communication with China, and noted that US President Joe Biden still intends to meet with Xi Jinping, without further details.

John Kirby also noted that, as far as he knows, China has not yet offered military assistance to Russia. The US administration believes Beijing is considering such aid, which China denies.

These are the most categorical comments of the US administration regarding the summit organized with great fanfare in the Kremlin, the purpose of which, above all, is to demonstrate the strength of relations between Russia and China.

The President of the People’s Republic of China assessed that relations between Beijing and Moscow are entering a “new era”, having signed a declaration with his Russian counterpart on “deepening the strategic partnership” between Russia and China.

The Kremlin leader, who rolled out the red carpet for Xi Jinping’s state visit, which ends on Wednesday, hailed the “special nature of Russian-Chinese relations”.

Relations between Washington and Beijing, already strained, further soured after the United States in February shot down a Chinese balloon that it believed was on a spying mission over US territory, which it denied.

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