China hails strategically valuable Russia relations

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi hailed Beijing’s “strategically valuable” relations with Moscow as he met his Russian counterpart against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine and turbulent ties with the United States.

Russia’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov was visiting Beijing after a trip to North Korea, where he received assurances of support for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Wang told Lavrov on Sunday that “China-Russia are the most stable, most mature and most strategically valuable relationship between major powers in the world today”, according to a Chinese foreign ministry readout of their meeting.

“The current focus is to... deepen comprehensive strategic cooperation, promote each side’s development and revitalisation, and jointly respond to the challenges brought by a turbulent and changing world,” Wang said.

The two ministers “exchanged views on the Korean peninsula, the Ukraine crisis, the Iranian nuclear issue and other matters”, the Chinese statement said.

It did not mention ties with Washington, which Moscow said was also on the agenda.

The Russian foreign ministry said Lavrov and Wang also discussed other “burning issues”, including the war in Gaza.

China, a diplomatic and economic ally of Moscow, claims to be neutral in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

However, it has never denounced Russia’s 2022 invasion nor called for it to withdraw its troops, and many of Ukraine’s allies believe that China has provided support for Russia.

Beijing regularly calls for an end to the fighting, while also accusing Western countries of prolonging the conflict by arming Ukraine.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told Russia’s top diplomat his country was ready to “unconditionally support” Moscow’s every effort to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, state media reported on Sunday, as the two countries held high-level strategic talks.

Lavrov was on a three-day visit to North Korea, which has provided troops and arms for Russia’s war in Ukraine and has pledged more military support as Moscow tries to make advances in the conflict.

Kim met Lavrov in the eastern coastal city of Wonsan where the two countries’ foreign ministers held their second strategic dialogue, pledging further cooperation under a partnership treaty signed last year that includes a mutual defence pact.

Kim told Lavrov the steps taken by the allies in response to radically evolving global geopolitics will contribute greatly to securing peace and security around the world, North Korea’s state news agency KCNA reported.

“Kim Jong Un reaffirmed the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) is ready to unconditionally support and encourage all the measures taken by the Russian leadership as regards the tackling of the root cause of the Ukrainian crisis,” KCNA said.

Lavrov earlier held talks with his North Korean counterpart Choe Son Hui in Wonsan, and they issued a joint statement pledging support to safeguard the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of each other’s country, KCNA said.

Later on Sunday, North Korea’s Defence Ministry said in a statement it stood ready to take military action to counter any security threat, in a warning against South Korea, Japan and the United States following a recent aerial drill by the allies.

The warning followed a U.S. B-52 strategic bomber flight near South Korea flanked by the three countries’ fighter jets in a defence exercise on Friday.

The nuclear-armed North has previously issued similar threats.

On Saturday, Lavrov described Russian-North Korean ties as “an invincible fighting brotherhood” in his meeting with Kim and thanked him for the troops deployed to Russia, according to Russian media.

Relations between Russia and North Korea have deepened during the last two years of the war in Ukraine, which started in February 2022, with Pyongyang deploying more than 10,000 troops and arms to Russia to back Moscow’s military campaign.

Agencies