Kirby said the United States would be watching carefully to see what emerges from the much-heralded meetings between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin this week in Russia.
“They have been increasing their cooperation and their relationship, certainly of late,” Kirby said of the two superpowers.
China recently floated a 12-point plan designed to end the Russia-Ukraine war. Kirby told host Mike Emanuel that the Biden administration remains dubious of China’s intentions when it comes to this war.
“What we have said before,” Kirby said, “and we’ll say it again today, that if coming out of this meeting, there’s some sort of call for a ceasefire, well, that’s just going to be unacceptable because all that’s going to do, Mike, is ratify Russian’s conquest to date.”
Kirby said he hoped China’s president would keep open “lines of communication” with President Joe Biden and also seek out the Ukrainian side of the story through discussions with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“We hope, and we’ve said this before, that President Xi will call and talk to President Zelenskyy because we believe that the Chinese need to get the Ukrainian perspective here,” Kirby said.
Speaking Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” former Trump National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster noted that Xi’s friendship with Putin seems to be getting stronger despite all the issues surrounding the Russia-Ukraine war.
“Remember, it’s really 10 years ago,” McMaster said, “almost to the day that Xi Jinping made his first visit to Moscow and they declared their special friendship. Since then they’ve just continued to double down on this relationship.”