China is looking to expand its strategic partnership with neighboring Russia in high-level talks scheduled to take place a few days after the opening dialogue with the team of US President Joe Biden becomes tense.
As the dust settled from Chinese Communist Party Central Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s confrontation with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan in Alaska last Thursday, the Russian diplomat himself arrived in China on Monday for a two-day visit.
Before these discussions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov praised the direction of the increasingly heated ties between Moscow and Beijing in an interview with Chinese media.
Lavrov warned that “the objective trend towards the rise of a truly multipolar democratic world is being undermined by some Western countries led by the United States, who would like to preserve their domination of the global economy and international politics at all costs and force their will and demands about each one. “
He said that China and Russia are offering a viable alternative, as together “they are promoting a constructive unification agenda”.
“We want the architecture of international relations to be fair, democratic, able to guarantee stability and based on the broad interaction of States and their integration associations,” said Lavrov, “just as we are doing together with our Chinese friends, promoting integration in Eurasia. . “
These points were well received in Beijing by China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying, who said his relationship was more important than ever.
“The more unstable the world, the more China and Russia need to move forward in our cooperation,” said Hua. “For a long time, the United States and the West have rampantly interfered in the internal affairs of other countries using democracy and human rights as an excuse. Such movements have created problems in the world and have even become the source of instability and war.”
She said that China and Russia “are always in close cooperation, firmly reject hegemony and the practice of intimidation and have become a major force for world peace and stability”.
In the face of the historic challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, Hua said that “it is fair to say that China-Russia relations have stood the test and emerged stronger with our friendship becoming even closer.”
She predicted that this renewed collaboration will continue to expand.
Lavrov’s visit, said Hua, “will further cement the good moment for high-level bilateral relations and bring the two countries closer together in strategic collaboration on international issues.”
Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Hua said the agenda would include “in-depth communication on a wide range of important topics, including bilateral relations, coordination on international and regional issues and high-level exchanges between China and Russia”.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement at the meeting on Monday, addressing specific areas of international concern, such as the United States, the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan (JCPOA), and the main sources of unrest in Asia.
“Ministers were informed about the relations between Russia and China with the United States,” the ministry said. “They also discussed a number of current issues on the global agenda, including cooperation within the United Nations and other international organizations, the situation in Afghanistan and Myanmar and the problems surrounding the Joint Global Action Plan (JCPOA).”
The meeting would have taken place “in a confidential and friendly environment, and confirmed the unity of approaches to the topics discussed”.
These cooperative conversations between China and Russia immediately follow the contentious interactions between the two countries and the United States.
The Chinese team in Anchorage reacted strongly to the Biden government’s raising of sensitive issues about China’s sovereignty and alleged human rights abuses. The American side also accused China of “coercion” from the international community through economic and political pressure, a charge that Hua said on Monday was more suited to Washington than Beijing.
“Both peoples and the overwhelming majority of countries, including people in countries allied to the United States, hope to see the peaceful coexistence of China and the United States,” she said. “The two countries can have more mutual friends. We hope that the United States can show the confidence and attitude of a large country and stop coercing other countries to choose sides and interfere in China’s internal affairs and undermine China’s interests. “
Blinken told reporters on Friday that he and Sullivan were fully aware during discussions that “there are a number of areas in which we are fundamentally at odds, including China’s actions in Xinjiang, in relation to Hong Kong, Tibet, each more and more Taiwan, as well as actions taken in cyberspace. “
“And it’s not surprising that when we raised these questions clearly and directly, we got a thoughtful answer,” he said.
Biden also sparked outrage in Russia after agreeing to characterize President Vladimir Putin as a “killer” during an interview with ABC News, in which he said Russia “would pay a price” for alleged interference in the 2020 US elections. Moscow responded by calling back its ambassador, and Putin challenged Biden to a live discussion, an offer that has apparently not yet been accepted.
“From what I understand, the American side is not ready,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday, according to state news agency Tass Russian News.
Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also gave its opinion on Monday.
“We regret to note that the American side did not support the proposal made by the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, to the President of the USA, Joe Biden, to hold a live discussion on March 19 or 22, 2021, about the problems that have accumulated in the bilateral relations, as well as on the issue of strategic stability, “said the ministry.” Another opportunity has been lost to find a way out of the impasse in Russia-US relations created by Washington. The responsibility for this lies entirely with the United States. “
Russian Ministry of Defense
China and Russia have so far avoided the idea of establishing a formal military alliance, although the two have significantly expanded their collaboration in several fields, including defense, economics and politics. The two have increasingly relied on areas of mutual interest, and have joined 15 other signatories to establish the “Group of Friends in Defense of the United Nations Charter”, which they shared with Newsweek your call for additional members earlier this month.
The two countries are also due to celebrate in July the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Good Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation, which Hua said on Monday would serve as an “opportunity to carry forward the spirit of the treaty and advance China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership. of coordination for a new era in greater scope, in broader areas and at deeper levels. “
“The two sides will come together to build a model of international relations with strategic trust, mutually beneficial cooperation, close interpersonal ties, equity and justice,” she said. “Together, the two sides can make a greater contribution to maintaining world peace and stability.”
The United States, on the other hand, has reinforced its commitment to existing military alliances, such as NATO’s western military bloc, to which Blinken should emphasize support after leaving for Belgium on Monday. The Cold War era coalition accused Russia of aggressive actions, which Moscow denies.
In Asia, where the Biden government dispatched Blinken along with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to meet with allies and partners ahead of Alaska’s talks with China, the US created a new regional group known as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, which also includes Australia, India and Japan. The quartet increased cooperation across Asia, including the South China Sea, much of which Beijing claims to be its own.
The Biden government has increasingly attacked China because of its internal affairs, issuing sanctions against the authorities for changes in the administration of semi-autonomous Hong Kong and for alleged human rights abuses directed at the Muslim Uighur community in Xinjiang.
Washington and Beijing also exchanged harsh language regarding the status of Taiwan, an autonomous island claimed by China, but which maintains informal military and political ties with the United States.