The US State Department said on Thursday a closer relationship between Russia and China will not make up for the consequences of a Russian invasion of Ukraine and only make the Russian economy more brittle.
State Department spokesman Ned Price told a regular news briefing the United States has an array of tools it can deploy if it sees foreign companies, including those in China, trying to "backfill" US export control actions over Ukraine.
Price spoke after China's Foreign Ministry said China and Russia coordinated their positions on Ukraine during a meeting between both countries' foreign ministers in Beijing on Thursday.