In a phone chat with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on March 18, US President Joe Biden failed to defuse the situation. The discussions took place after the United States cautioned China not to react to a prospective request for support in Vladimir Putin’s fight against Ukraine.

In a speech the next day, China’s Vice Foreign Minister, Le Yucheng, presented the US-led Indo-Pacific alliance as a danger to China.

The alliance consists of the United States, Japan, Australia, and India.

The ambassador referred to NATO, claiming that the strategic alliances have an aggressive nature and pose a threat to both Russia and China.

“NATO has continued to build and expand, and has interfered militarily in nations such as Yugoslavia, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan,” he stated.

“The Indo-Pacific policy is as hazardous as NATO’s eastward expansion plan in Europe,” Mr. Le continued.

“If left uncontrolled, it will have inconceivable effects and will eventually push the Asia-Pacific [region] over the brink of an abyss.”

Putin has negotiated reviving trade ties with China and India since the West imposed financial sanctions on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.

Gazprom, the Russian state-owned fossil fuel company, inked a deal last month to develop the Soyuz Vostok pipeline across Mongolia into China.

According to the announcement, the new pipeline “will be an extension of the Russian gas pipeline Power of Siberia 2.”

As the two nations’ connections grow, China’s natural gas imports from Russia increased by a staggering 50.5 percent in the last year.

China voted against condemning Russia’s attack on Ukraine in two UN Security Council votes.

On its part, India has argued that sanctions imposed by the West are not the appropriate response to Russia’s aggressiveness.

However, the US has placed pressure on India to join the West in imposing sanctions, with Donald Lu, assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs at the US State Department, urging the country to separate itself from Russia.

In the midst of a stalemate with China and ongoing tensions with Pakistan, India relies heavily on Russia for a steady supply of armaments and ammunition.