U.S. Still Sending Foreign Aid to Russia and China, Figures Show

The U.S. government is committed to providing nearly $110,000 in foreign aid to projects in Russia, and $240,000 to China, in 2023, despite surging tensions with Moscow and Beijing.

According to the American state-run website foreignassistance.gov this money has already been committed, with much of it going to tiger conservation projects in the two countries.

Relations between the U.S. and Russia nosedived following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, since which Washington has provided more than $43 billion in military aid to Kyiv. The U.S. has also clashed with China over Taiwan, human rights, trade and the South China Sea, while an American shot down a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of North Carolina in February.

Data from foreignassistance.gov shows $107,847 is scheduled to be spent by the U.S. Department of the Interior in Russia in 2023, all of which will go to the Amur Tiger Conservation in a Changing Landscape in Russia Project.

According to the website this project monitors the number of both tigers at "key sites" in the Russian far-east, as well as conducting "ecological studies of prey species to better inform conservation management systems."

During the same period $240,000 is committed for China, of which $151,273 was spent by the Department of the Interior on a project "protecting Amur tigers via community-led engagement in northeast China."

This is a three-year project aiming to boost links "between park authorities and local residents by inviting villagers to directly participate in tiger conservation," in return for funding to "improve quality of life in these villages."

Most of the other funding was spent on "direct administration costs" by the U.S. Agency for International Development, including money for personnel, travel expenses and "operations maintenance."

Details of some of the Agency for International Development spending was redacted "in accordance with the exceptions outlined in the Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act of 2016."

American government spending in Russia and China pales in response to spending in Ukraine, where $10 billion has been committed so far this year according to the government figures.

Newsweek has approached the U.S. Department of the Interior and State Department for comment via online contact form.

Earlier this week Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Alexei Polischuk said Moscow will only remove nuclear weapons from neighboring Belarus "if the United States and NATO abandon their destructive course of purposefully undermining the security of Russia and Belarus."

He added: "This implies the complete withdrawal of all U.S. nuclear weapons to US territory and the elimination of the corresponding infrastructure in Europe."

In July Republican presidential hopeful Mike Pence, formerly Donald Trump's vice-president, warned U.S. troops could end up having to fight their Russian counterparts if Vladimir Putin isn't stopped by Ukraine.

Appearing on radio's Hugh Hewitt Show, he said: "I have no doubt that if Vladimir Putin overran Ukraine, it would not be too long, Hugh, before the Russian military crossed a border where we would have to send our fighting men and women to fight against them."

The United States is committed to defending the 31 NATO members, 29 of which are in Europe, if they are subject to external aggression.