The US treasury chief has sought to maintain the Biden administration’s collaboration with American financial institutions, highlighting the potential sanctions for entities that supply Russia’s military-industrial complex.

“You cannot have China on the one hand professing to seek better relations with countries in Europe while on the other hand fuelling the greatest security threat to Europe since the end of the Cold War,” Blinken testified before the US Senate Foreign Relations committee.

Yellen in her speech in Italy is also expected to mention the growing external debt service of developing countries, describing it as reaching “a level not seen in nearly two decades”.

While the US treasury chief’s excerpted remarks did not cite China specifically on debt servicing, a senior White House official called out Beijing on the matter.

Speaking to reporters in Washington on Tuesday, Frances Brown, Biden’s senior director for African affairs, said China had as much an obligation as Washington to relieve Kenya of its debt burden.

The US and international community must ensure “countries like Kenya don’t have to choose between servicing debts and making investments in their future”, Brown said ahead of Kenyan President William Ruto’s state visit in Washington this week.

“We do believe that all bilateral creditors need to do their part to help on this, including the PRC, which is Kenya’s bilateral creditor,” Brown said, referring to China.

Debt restructuring has been a focal point at multilateral forums in recent years. As a creditor of numerous countries in the Global South, Beijing plays a central role in renegotiations and has offered extensions of loan terms and debt cancellations.

Additional reporting by Robert Delaney in Washington