Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and China’s Director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission Wang Yi attend a meeting in Moscow, Russia, September 18, 2023. Russian Foreign Ministry/Handout via Portal acquire license rights
September 19 (Portal) – Moscow and Beijing’s top diplomats noted that their positions on Washington’s “anti-Russian and anti-Chinese” stance were close and agreed that any attempt to resolve the Ukraine crisis must involve Moscow, the Russian said Foreign Ministry early Tuesday with .
Wang Yi, Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s contact for international business, is in Moscow for several days of talks on security and foreign policy with Russian officials.
He arrived in Moscow immediately after hours of talks in Malta with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, which the White House described on Sunday as “candid” and “constructive.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a Telegram statement after the Moscow talks that “the proximity of the parties’ positions to US actions on the international stage, including those of an anti-Russian and anti-Chinese nature, was noted.”
The ministry added that Wang had briefed Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on “the content of negotiations” with Sullivan.
The United States and its allies have often expressed concern about a growing rapprochement between China and Russia, which intensified after Moscow sent thousands of troops to Ukraine in 2022, in what Washington and Kiev said was an unprovoked act of violence aggression was.
Although they do not commit to defending each other’s country with military support, and with President Vladimir Putin relying on Xi far more than China relies on Russia to meet China’s oil and gas needs, the two countries have said that they had come closer to each other in order to balance the supposed dominance of the USA in world affairs.
Wang’s talks with Lavrov also included preparations for Russia’s participation in the third Belt and Road Forum in Beijing in October, the Russian ministry said, without confirming whether Putin will attend.
“The negotiations took place in the trusting and constructive manner characteristic of the Russian-Chinese dialogue,” the ministry said.
It added that Lavrov and Wang spoke “at length” about Ukraine and “stated the futility of attempts to resolve the crisis without taking into account the interests and, in particular, without the participation of Russia.”
The war in Ukraine has cost thousands of lives, displaced millions, reduced cities to rubble and there is no end in sight.
Wang will hold “strategic security” talks with Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Russian Security Council, later on Tuesday, Russian news portal Interfax reported, before holding trilateral talks with Mongolian officials.
Reporting by Ron Popeski and Lidia Kelly; Writing by Lidia Kelly; Edited by Rosalba O’Brien
Our standards: The Thomson Portal Trust Principles.
Acquire license rights, opens new tab