Bessent Says China Talks Could Include Its Russia, Iran Oil Purchases

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the next round of US-China talks could include a discussion of China’s purchases of Russian and Iranian oil, a signal that the focus could shift from more traditional trade issues to ones that cross over into matters of national security.

“Trade is in a good place,” Bessent said on CNBC, referring to recent and ongoing negotiations with China. “And I think now we can start talking about other things. The Chinese, unfortunately, are very large purchasers of sanctioned Iranian oil, sanctioned Russian oil — so we could start discussing that.”