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President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed at their summit in Beijing that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open, the White House said.

Getting into it: Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who traveled to China with Trump, said the two leaders found common ground on Iran. Rubio also said the US did not ask Beijing for help and insisted the administration doesn’t need it, even as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that China would work behind the scenes to nudge Iran toward reopening the waterway.

Rubio added, “The Chinese side said they are not in favor of militarizing the Straits of Hormuz, and they’re not in favor of a tolling system, and that’s our position.”

Trump also said China gave assurances that it would not arm Iran with military equipment, though Chinese state media offered a vaguer account, with the Xinhua news agency saying only that the two had discussed major regional issues including the Middle East, without naming Hormuz directly. In another interview, Trump said that President Xi offered to help find a solution to the ongoing conflict.

Despite this, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi pushed back on the claim that Tehran is what’s keeping the strait closed, telling a conference in India that the strait is “open for all commercial vessels” but that ships “need to cooperate with our navy forces.”

This all comes as China is the largest buyer of Iranian oil exports (roughly 90% of Iranian oil is purchased by China). Because of this, many believe that China has significant leverage over the Iranian government.