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BEIJING. – China and Russia on Tuesday lashed out at the “destructive” behaviour of the United States and called for a UN Security Council summit to establish stability between global superpowers.
The rare show of diplomatic unity came after a Western coalition imposed sanctions on Chinese officials over alleged interment camps in Xinjiang.
China on Tuesday summoned the British and EU ambassadors over the coordinate sanctions.
After meeting in the Chinese city of Guilin, Chinese and Russian foreign ministers on Tuesday called for the permanent members of the UN Security Council to gather for a summit “to establish direct dialogue about ways to resolve mankind’s common problems in the interests of maintaining global stability”.
The statement also urged other countries to refrain from “politicising human rights issues” in a clear reference to the deplorable human rights record of both Moscow and Beijing.
Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said that Moscow and Beijing agree about the “destructive” intentions of the United States which he criticised for “relying on the military and political alliances of the Cold War-era and creating new closed alliances in the same spirit to undermine the UN-centred international legal architecture”.
Relations between Moscow and Washington took another hit last week after US President Joe Biden said in an interview that he believed that Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, was a “killer.”
Moscow and Beijing both view recent Western sanctions as “unacceptable,” Lavrov said on Tuesday. “Punishing anyone on the world arena today is just wrong, and using the same methods against Russia and China is simply stupid,” he was quoted as saying.
Russia is bracing for a new round of sanctions over what Washington says was meddling in last year’s presidential elections. Moscow has denied any involvement.
“For us, China is a true strategic partner and like-minded friend. Our cooperation in the international arena will have a stabilising effect on the global and regional situation,” Lavrov told Chinese media.
“We want the architecture of international relations to be fair, democratic, capable of ensuring stability,” Lavrov added. Their joint statement emphasised the centrality of the United Nations to the international system and called on states to “adhere to the principles of open, equal, and non-ideological multilateralism.”
Beyond coordinated messaging hitting back at the United States and its Western partners, the two sides discussed the Iran nuclear deal, urging Washington to unconditionally return and Tehran to resume compliance.
They also spoke about Afghan reconciliation and reconstruction; the situation in Myanmar following the coup; as well as UN reform, climate change, Syria, and Sudan. In the Chinese Foreign Ministry press conference on March 23, spokesperson Hua Chunying said, “The more unstable the world is, the more China and Russia need to advance our cooperation.”
Sino-Russian cooperation appears poised to expand further as officials continue to present the friendship as ever-stronger and closer. Russia was reportedly the most visited country by high-level Chinese delegations in 2020 despite the global pandemic, with Wang and Lavrov having eight phone calls and two meetings last year.
This year also marks the 20th anniversary of the signing by China’s Jiang Zemin and Russia’s Vladimir Putin of the Treaty of Good-Neighbourliness and Friendly Cooperation between Russia and China, an agreement that facilitated the expansion of the scope of cooperation between the two neighbours.
Separately, this latest visit comes following the joint announcement by Chinese and Russian space administrations of their first collaborative space project to construct a lunar research station – the International Lunar Research Station – earlier this month. – YahooNews
Online Reporter