A dispute over airline routes between the US and China has emerged as a further sticking point in efforts to improve relations between the countries after Joe Biden and Xi Jinping agreed stabilising ties was necessary in November.
The US has offered to grant Chinese airlines the same number of weekly flights between both countries as American carriers — but only if they agree not to fly over Russia, according to six people familiar with the talks.
Moscow banned US carriers from flying over the country after Washington prohibited Russian airlines from flying to the US in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Chinese airlines are not banned from Russian airspace.