U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg says that the U.S. and South Korea’s joint military exercises in the East Sea this week were conducted as a result of China’s support for North Korea and its unwillingness to denounce the North for its sinking of the “Cheonan.”

Steinberg made the remark during a discussion hosted by the Nixon Center on Tuesday.

He said, however, that despite the U.S.-South Korea drills, Washington’s long-term goals are consistent with China’s two most fundamental interests of a nuclear-free peninsula and the maintenance of regional stability.