Russia, China reiterate their rejection of West’s ‘confrontational policy’

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi reiterated their rejection of the West’s “confrontational policy” toward their countries in a phone call Wednesday.

“The general rejection of the confrontational policy of the Western bloc towards Russia and China, attempts to restrain their development through sanctions, deliberate provocations and other illegitimate methods were emphasized,” said a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The statement said Lavrov and Wang discussed a number of issues on the international agenda during their meeting, including the Russia-Ukraine war, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the situation around the Korean Peninsula and in the Asia-Pacific region.

They noted the constructive nature of interaction between Russia and China within the UN, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the BRICS bloc of developing nations and other multilateral formats, the statement said, indicating that the Chinese side expressed support for Russia’s chairmanship of BRICS.

The statement further said that an exchange of views took place on ways to establish contacts between China and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

It also said that both ministers summed up and highly appreciated the main results of bilateral talks between the two countries during the past year, indicating that they paid particular attention to the implementation of agreements reached at the highest political level.

“The special importance of Russian-Chinese strategic interaction for the establishment of a fair multipolar world order and, in particular, the formation of reliable foundations for Eurasian security was emphasized,” the statement said.

Pointing out that Lavrov and Wang noted the trade turnover between Russia and China at the end of 2023 had exceeded $200 billion, the statement went on to say that the two ministers said that bilateral trade and economic cooperation had successfully coped with external challenges.

“Communication between the heads of the foreign policy departments of Russia and China once again confirmed the broad consonance of the approaches of the two states to world affairs and the readiness of the parties to further maintain close coordination on the world stage,” it added.​​​​​​​