MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/. The US will not manage to sow discord between Russia and China, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in an interview with the magazine International Affairs published on Thursday.

“No one will manage to put us at odds with China,” he said, answering the question on whether Washington’s withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) may raise alarm bells in Moscow and Beijing. The diplomat went on to emphasize, “Someone in Washington may be inclined” to play off Russia against China, but he reassured, saying, “I am confident that our Chinese friends understand this game perfectly well.”

Ryabkov stressed that Russia cannot and will not play into the Americans’ game to counter China's rise. “It is completely out of the question,” he stated.