(Washington) “It’s good for them”: a White House spokesperson joked Friday about a much-noticed hug between the Russian and Chinese presidents, while trying to put the scope of the demonstrations of friendship into perspective of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.
“These are also two leaders who haven’t worked together for very long and the officials in each government don’t necessarily have a lot of trust in each other,” said John Kirby, a spokesman for the Security Council. national, a cell of the White House.
Xi Jinping received Vladimir Putin in Beijing on Thursday for discussions aimed at deepening the partnership between the two countries.
PHOTO MIKHAIL METZEL, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin
He hugged him, an unusual gesture which was immediately widely commented on.
“I’m not good at talking about displays of physical affection,” joked John Kirby, “I’ll let these two gentlemen explain why they thought it was okay to hug each other.”
“We didn’t see anything come out of this meeting that really surprised us,” he commented.
The spokesperson nevertheless explained that Washington remained “very concerned” by the support that China provides to the Russian defense industry, against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.
The United States, which is trying to stabilize its very tense relationship with China, believes that so far Beijing has not crossed the red line which would consist of sending weapons directly to Russia.