Russia and Iran, two of China’s biggest partners, said they welcome discussions between the U.S. and China.
In both cases, the United States and China are the two largest participants in their respective wars, directly or indirectly. With the wars in Iran and Ukraine on President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s agenda during the former’s visit, Tehran and Moscow voiced their welcoming of discussions.
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“Any effort made by the Chinese to support diplomacy will be welcomed by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters at a BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi, India.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov also welcomed discussions, telling reporters that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s next visit to China at an unspecified date will be “a good opportunity to exchange opinions on the contacts that have taken place between the Chinese and the Americans.”
“When (the US and China) engage in direct dialogue at the highest level … such contacts, of course, are a subject of special attention and analysis for all countries, including our country,” he continued, adding that China was now the world’s largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity.
If Trump’s comments are to be believed, Iran has much more to worry about over the Trump-Xi summit. Speaking to Fox News’s Sean Hannity on Thursday, Trump indicated that China was positioning itself to abandon its support for Iran, even seeming impressed with the U.S.’s performance in a war that killed Iran’s leader and decimated its military.
“We talked about it today, it’s very interesting, but they’re impressed,” Trump said of China’s assessment of the war in Iran. “We have a great military, we have the greatest military we’ve ever had.”
China was one of the countries that stood to lose the most from the war in Iran, given its close economic relationship with the pariah state. Trump suggested they were striking a deal to solve that matter, with the U.S. substituting Iran’s role in providing energy exports.
“[Xi’s] been very good. They get a lot of their oil, 40% of their oil from [Iran]. So, what has happened, and one thing I think that we’re going to make a deal on, is they’ve agreed they want to buy oil from the United States. They’re going to go to Texas, we’re going to start sending Chinese ships to Texas, and to Louisiana, and to Alaska,” the president said, describing it as a “big thing.”
China serves as a key economic lifeline for Iran, which has been blocked from dealing with most of the world’s largest economies. If China were to lessen or withdraw its support, Tehran’s situation would grow even more dire.
Trump told Hannity that he was pushing Xi to do precisely this.
“I told him today, I said, ‘You know, we’re helping you,’ because I don’t think … China wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon either,” Trump said. “I said, ‘These guys are crazy, you don’t need them having a nuclear weapon.'”
When pressed on how Xi responded, Trump said he played coy.
TRUMP SAYS CHINA ‘IMPRESSED’ BY IRAN WAR, HINTS AT BEIJING RESUMING US OIL IMPORTS
“Well, he’s not going to respond too much. He’s a pretty cool guy,” Trump joked. “He’s not going to say, ‘Oh, gee, that’s a good point!’ I mean, what is he gonna say, ‘What a wonderful point!’”
Discussions around the Russia-Ukraine war in Beijing are less likely to bear fruit, with Trump less aggressive and Moscow in a much better bargaining position.
