Biden Announces More Aid for Ukraine as G7 Powers Meet in Japan

“I don’t think there is anything inevitable about the idea that there will be a conflict between the United States and the West” with China, Mr. Biden added.

But China is hardly assuaded. The administration quickly denounced the G7 summit over the weekend, warning leaders not to pressure Beijing on Taiwan, economic coercion and other contentious topics.

“The Group of 7 talks in lofty tones about ‘moving to a peaceful, stable, prosperous world,’ but what they are doing is hindering international peace, undermining regional stability, and suppressing the development of other countries,” China’s Foreign Minister said. Affairs said in a statement. “The Group of 7 ignores China’s concerns and insists on manipulating China-related topics, undermining and attacking China, and violently interfering in China’s domestic affairs.”

China has been Russia’s main ally during the Ukraine war, although it has not sent any lethal aid, according to American officials. In a sign that Beijing and Moscow remain close despite tensions over the war in Ukraine, China announced that its senior envoy, Chen Wenqing, chairman of the Communist Party’s political and legal affairs committee, will travel to Russia for meetings on security cooperation.

Russia has its own way of responding to the message of solidarity for Ukraine emerging from the G7. The Russian navy deployed two warships and two submarines in the Black Sea, in what appeared to be a sign of a planned missile attack on Ukraine to coincide with the G7 summit, a spokesman for Ukraine’s southern military command said on Ukrainian television.

The meeting between Mr Biden and Mr Zelensky was the first since the US president made a surprise trip to Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, in February. The two men reminisced Sunday about the visit, when they went outside to pay their respects to fallen Ukrainians even as air raid sirens sounded. Mr. Biden recalled following Mr. Zelensky, who seemed unhurried. “And I thought, ‘Well, if they don’t care about the sirens, I don’t care about the sirens.'”

Jim Tankersley, Chris Buckley, Andrew E. Kramer and Hikari Hida contributed reporting.