MOSCOW, February 10. /TASS/. Washington does not particularly hide that it seeks to resolve issues in Europe in order to concentrate on countering China, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with NTV channel.

"There are analysts who say that the United States will now leave Europe to its own devices, will ‘pacify’ something in the Middle East, that another war will be stopped, and then it is necessary to reach an agreement with Russia and ‘remove’ the Ukrainian issue from the negotiating table," the Russian foreign minister noted.

Lavrov explained that once the United States resolves the existing problems in Europe and around Ukraine and thereby normalizes cooperation with Russia, "this will make it possible to focus all major efforts on countering China." According to him, this "is not said aloud, but it is implied."

"This is the essence of the analytical assessments by both our and Western political scientists who have analyzed the United States’ National Security Strategy and Defense Strategy. In fact, the Americans do not particularly hide this," he added.