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• U.S. officials believe that Moscow has requested Beijing to provide military support
• U.S. officials conveyed their concerns regarding the same on Monday
Officials from the US conveyed their concerns regarding Moscow's request for military equipment from Beijing for its war in Ukraine in a bilateral meeting with China's top diplomats.
CNBC reported that Biden's national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, conveyed to China's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, that the U.S. is concerned Beijing may attempt to help Russia blunt global sanctions.
On Monday, Financial Times reported that Russia asked China for military equipment to support its invasion of Ukraine. This caused concern in the White House that Beijing may undermine western efforts to help Ukrainian forces defend their country.
Beijing has denied that Moscow asked it for any assistance to support its Ukraine invasion. On Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied allegations that Russia requested military aid from China.
Al Jazeera quoted Einar Tangen, senior international fellow at the Taihe Institute, a China-based think-tank. Tangen told Al Jazeera that Beijing was not interested in providing military support.
"China has already said it quite clearly, that they oppose the West putting more arms and ammunition into Ukraine as they see it as adding oil to fire. So it would be hypocritical if they were to start helping Russia," Tangen said, reported Al Jazeera.
Meanwhile, in his brief comments on the bilateral talks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian did not mention Ukraine. He said that the "key issue of this meeting is implementing the important consensus reached by the Chinese and U.S. heads of state in their virtual summit in November last year".
(Inputs from Al Jazeera and CNBC)