WATCH: John Kirby speaks on the condition of American detainees in Russia

White House National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby said the United States is ” deeply concerned” about the condition and whereabouts of American detainee Paul Whelan in Russia.

Watch the briefing in the player above.

“We are deeply concerned about the lack of information and the lack of contacts from Paul, and we’re working on this really as hard as we can through diplomatic channels,” Kirby said.

Kirby said the United States has not been able to get information from Moscow about Whelan and addressed the issue after Whelan’s family reported they had not heard from Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive, since Nov. 23.

The Whelan family’s concerns came after seeing reports that Paul Whelan had been moved to the prison hospital.

Kirby told reporters during a virtual briefing Wednesday, “We have been trying to get more information about Mr. Whelan’s condition and his whereabouts. And as we speak this morning, regrettably, we do not have an update specifically about where he is or what condition he’s in.”

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Russia and the United States have repeatedly been on the verge of an agreement on a prisoner exchange, a senior Russian diplomat said Tuesday, adding that a deal is still possible before the year’s end.

The Biden administration has been trying for months to negotiate the release of Whelan, a former Marine and another American jailed in Russia, American WNBA star Brittney Griner including through a possible prisoner swap with Moscow.

Kirby also discussed the killing of Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, the leader of the Islamic State group.

Al-Qurayshi was killed in battle recently, the group’s spokesman said in audio released Wednesday but gave no further details.

Al-Qurayshi is the second IS leader to be killed this year at a time when the extremist group has been trying to rise again with its sleeper cells carrying out deadly attacks in Iraq and Syria.

Little had been known about al-Qurayshi, who took over the group’s leadership following the death of his predecessor, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, in a U.S. raid in February in northwest Syria.

Asked in about al-Qurayshi’s death, spokesman Kirby said: “We certainly welcome the news of the death of another ISIS leader. I don’t have any additional operational details to provide at this time.”

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Meanwhile, as Presidents Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron look to celebrate the longstanding U.S.-French relationship on Thursday, both leaders also find themselves negotiating differences between Europe and America—some larger than others—on no shortage of thorny issues.

Biden is set to honor Macron with the first state dinner of his presidency on Thursday evening.

First, the two leaders will first sit down in the Oval Office on Thursday morning that’s expected to largely center on the two leaders’ efforts to stay united in their response to Russia’s war in Ukraine while negotiating differences in approach towards an increasingly assertive China.

Kirby says he fully expects that China will be “high on the agenda” in the leader’s meeting in the coming days.

“We believe that not only France, but every other member of the G-7 and, frankly, our NATO allies see the threats and the challenges posed by China in the same way, we know that the French have strong equities in the Indo-Pacific region and that remains and that they we welcome France as a partner in trying to secure a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Kirby said.