U.S. President Donald Trump publicly thanked the leaders of Russia and China for their neutral stance during the campaign against Iran.
He said this at a briefing on the evening of June 17 after the G7 summit.
Trump stated that he wanted to express gratitude to China and its leader Xi Jinping for being "neutral, absolutely neutral" during the U.S. and Israel's campaign against Iran.
"And I want to thank Vladimir Putin – he was very neutral. They could have made all of this significantly more difficult for us," said the U.S. president.
He noted that in his conversation with Xi Jinping, he asked him not to sell weapons to Iran, particularly air defense systems that could pose problems for American aviation.
"And you know, for the most part, he didn’t do that. So I want to thank them because they made the situation significantly better," added Trump.
