US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has likened the rapprochement between Russia and China to a "marriage of convenience", stressing that Beijing has not yet provided Moscow with lethal weapons to support Russian forces in their war on Ukraine.

During a hearing before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, Blinken said: "Since they have a very different view of the world than ours, they have entered into a marriage of convenience, which I am not sure is convinced."

"Russia is clearly the weakest partner in this relationship, I'm not sure that Russia or (its president Vladimir) Putin wants a world order, they want global chaos," he said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping this week visited Moscow, renewing his call for a ceasefire in Ukraine under Beijing's peace plan, but that call was questioned by Washington, which fears Moscow could use any such truce to close ranks its troops scattered on Ukraine's battlefields.

During the visit, Xi and Putin said the "special" relationship between their countries had entered a "new era" vis-à-vis the West.


China's support for Russia

On Wednesday morning, during a hearing before another parliamentary committee, Blinken said China had "not yet crossed the line of delivery of lethal weapons to Russia," and said in response to a question that "so far we have not found that they have crossed that line."

Blinken has been publicly warning for weeks that China is considering Russia's request for weapons to use in its war on Ukraine, and information points to limited shipments sent by Chinese companies to Moscow.

On China, Blinken said, "I think its diplomatic support, its political support and, to some extent, its material support for Russia is definitely contrary to our interest in ending this war."

He said the United States would encourage other countries to extradite Russian President Vladimir Putin if he visited them after the ICC arrest warrant.

"I think any member of the court has obligations, and they have to live up to their commitments," Blinken said, but did not say the United States would.

"I have to look at the laws, and as you know, actually we are not a member of the International Criminal Court, so I don't want to go into this hypothesis," he said, but ruled out that Putin had "any intention of traveling here soon."


The United States is not a member of the International Criminal Court, whose investigation into U.S. crimes in Afghanistan has angered Washington, prompting former President Donald Trump's administration to impose sanctions on the former prosecutor of the judicial body.

After assuming the presidency, Joe Biden improved relations with the ICC and lifted sanctions, despite a 2002 law barring the United States from formally assisting the court.

Putin has not visited the United States since 2015, when he attended the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

Russia is a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, which is at its summit in November in San Francisco, but the United States is unlikely to invite the Russian president.