The relationship between Beijing and Moscow shows great stability, maturity and strategic values, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi told his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Beijing ahead of a Eurasian grouping summit.
The Russian foreign minister arrived in Beijing on Saturday following a working visit to North Korea, where he met leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang and held the second round of strategic dialogue with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui.
Emphasising the depth and uniqueness of their bilateral ties, Wang also said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s coming visit to China would be among top priorities between Beijing and Moscow in the coming months.
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China’s Xi Jinping joins Vladimir Putin at Victory Day parade in Russia
China’s Xi Jinping joins Vladimir Putin at Victory Day parade in Russia
“China-Russia relations represent the most stable, mature and strategically significant major-country relationship in the world today, and both sides consistently view and advance cooperation across all domains from a historical, strategic and long-term perspective,” Wang told Lavrov, who is in Beijing for a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) foreign ministers’ meeting, according to a Chinese readout.
“Close communication between the two foreign ministers facilitates the timely implementation of the consensus reached by the two heads of state, and the current priority is to jointly prepare for high-level engagements in the next phase, deepen comprehensive strategic coordination … and collaboratively address the challenges posed by a turbulent and changing world.”
Russia’s presidential aide Yury Ushakov said in an interview in Moscow last month that Putin would spend four days in China from August 31 to September 3, when he would join the SCO leaders’ summit and hold major bilateral talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping before taking part in activities marking the 80th anniversary of China’s victory in its resistance war against Japanese aggression.
On Tuesday, Lavrov will join SCO counterparts from Central Asia as well as Iran, India and Pakistan in China’s northern port city of Tianjin to pave the way for the leaders’ meeting in late August.
