China and the United States are working together to end the war in Ukraine, but "sometimes you have to let them fight," President Donald Trump said after meeting with Xi Jinping in South Korea, as quoted by "Politico".
Ukraine had high hopes for the talks, hoping Trump would convince the Chinese leader to buy less oil from Russia and therefore stop funding the war after the United States imposed sanctions on Moscow's major oil giants.
But oil was not on the negotiating table, Trump noted, although "Ukraine was brought up very strongly" during the meeting.
"We talked about it for a long time. We'll both work together to see if we can work something out. We agreed that the parties are tied up, that they're fighting, and sometimes you have to let them fight, I guess... madness. But he will help us and we will work together on Ukraine,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.
Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Trump’s meeting with Xi could be the next step toward ending the war in Ukraine.
"If after the U.S. sanctions, China is ready to reduce imports of Russian oil... Because we already have signals from India that they will reduce imports of energy resources from Russia," Zelensky said during a meeting with several journalists in Kiev on Monday, which was also attended by "Politico".
But that did not happen.
"He [Xi] has been buying oil from Russia for a long time, and it serves a large part of China... But we did not discuss oil with him. We discussed working together to end this war. It does not affect China; it does not affect us. But I don't like seeing thousands of young men killed," Trump said.
Trump's comments are interesting because "it clearly demonstrates that China views Russia as a secondary partner. They are willing to discuss Russia not as an ally, not as a strategic partner ... but just as a country, a small business," said Hannah Shelest, director of security programs at the Ukrainian Prism Foreign Policy Council.
Although China has said it is not profiting from Russia's war in Ukraine, Beijing dominates purchases of coal and crude oil from Moscow, accounting for 42% (5.5 billion euros) of Russia's export revenue from its top five importers in September, the non-governmental organization Center for Energy and Clean Air Research reported earlier this month.