Beijing and Moscow will strengthen ties, according to China’s top ambassador.
In recent years, political and commercial ties between China and Russia have grown.
JAKARTA: As relations between the allies deepen following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last year, China’s top diplomat announced on Thursday that Beijing would strengthen ties with Russia in areas of strategic communication and cooperation.
Beijing claims to be a neutral party in the conflict, but many of Kyiv’s supporters accuse Beijing of siding with Russia since it has emerged as Moscow’s most crucial partner during its current international isolation.
On the margins of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Jakarta, where both will participate in a Friday ministerial meeting of the 18-nation East Asia Summit, Wang Yi met with Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia.
Wang was quoted as saying in a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry that “the two sides should… strengthen strategic communication and coordination.”
“China and Russia steadfastly support one another in defending legitimate interests, adhere to the path of peaceful coexistence, and pursue win-win development.”
Due to the illness of Foreign Minister Qin Gang, Wang was serving as Beijing’s representative in the Indonesian capital on Tuesday.
The meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in March gave the bilateral relations “strong momentum,” according to Lavrov, who also claimed that Moscow and Beijing were still having “high-level exchanges.”
According to a statement from the Russian foreign ministry, Lavrov stated, “We have more and more areas where interests and plans converge, so I am looking at further development with optimism.”
In recent years, political and commercial ties between China and Russia have grown.
According to a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry, Wang stated that both parties “exchanged views on strengthening coordination and cooperation under multilateral frameworks such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.”
Additionally, Wang said that both nations will “guard against external interference” and assist the ASEAN community in identifying “the right path for cooperation in East Asia and maintaining… stability in the region.”
According to an official media summary of Xi’s virtual speech at a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation conference in India last week, he cautioned against “colour revolutions” and a “new Cold War”.
Putin declared that Moscow would “continue to resist external pressure, sanctions, and provocations” at his first summit since the Wagner mercenary group’s brief rebellion last month.
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