Trump says China could have stopped the war if Europe had resorted to tariffs or sanctions

President of the United States Donald Trump said that China could probably force Russia to end its war against Ukraine if European countries imposed economic restrictions on Beijing. Following his visit to the UK, the politician said this in an interview with Fox News, an excerpt from which published the White House.

"Well, if they [European countries] did sanctions as an example or tariffs or whatever you want to call it, if they did that on China, I think the war would maybe end. Because China is by far the biggest purchaser of oil from Russia. And I think they have other powers over Russia, too," said the US leader.

He added that he would have a conversation with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping regarding the sale of the TikTok messenger and trade: "And we're very close to deals on all of it. And my relationship with China is very good. You know, we have a trade deal with them. We had a very good meeting the other day".

At the same time, Trump added that if Europe "does something" about China, Beijing will "maybe force [Russia] an end to the war."

The journalist asked whether the partners were open to such actions, and whether the British prime minister Keir Starmer had told him that European countries will consider it.

"Well, I would have done something, too. But again, you can't have Europe buying oil from Russia and then have me getting upset with China because they're buying oil from Russia," Trump replied.

Earlier, Trump, during a joint press conference with Starmer, said that a decline in oil prices would force a dictator Vladimir Putin to end the war against Ukraine.

• On September 15 the US president published "a letter sent to all NATO countries and the world", in which, among other things, he stated that he was ready to impose "serious sanctions" against Russia when all the countries of the Alliance start doing the same and stop buying Russian oil.
• On September 15, secretary of State Rubio said that Trump wants European countries to impose such sanctions on Russia, what they expect from the United States itself.
• US Treasury secretary Bessent said that the US administration will not impose additional duties on Chinese goods to stop Beijing's purchases of Russian oil unless European countries establish the country's own high tariffs on products.