Wang Yi Holds Talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

On March 30, 2022, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who came to China to attend the Third Foreign Ministers' Meeting on the Afghan Issue Among the Neighboring Countries of Afghanistan, in Tunxi, Anhui Province.

Wang Yi said, China-Russia relations have withstood the new test of evolving international landscape, remained on the right course and shown resilient development momentum. Both sides are more determined to develop bilateral relations and more confident in advancing cooperation in various fields. China is ready to work with Russia to act on the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, and promote China-Russia relations in the new era to higher levels.

Lavrov said, at the critical moment of the development of the international situation, the heads of state of Russia and China have maintained strategic communication and played important roles in advancing the steady development of Russia-China relations and promoting greater multipolarity in the world. Russia is ready to work with China to take solid steps to implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, continuously strengthen high-level strategic cooperation and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation between the two sides in various fields. At the same time, in the international and multilateral arena, the two sides should actively advance the process toward greater multipolarity, oppose hegemonism and power politics, and safeguard the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.

Lavrov briefed Wang Yi on the Russia-Ukraine talks, saying that Russia is committed to de-escalating the tensions, and will continue peace talks with Ukraine and maintain communication with the international community.

Wang Yi said, the international situation has entered a period of turbulence and transformation, with the world experiencing profound changes unseen in a century. China has always supported greater multipolarity in the world and greater democracy in international relations, always advocated safeguarding the purposes of the UN Charter and the basic norms governing international relations, always upheld objectivity and fairness in international affairs, and always stood on the right side of history. The Ukraine issue has a complicated historical context. It is both an outburst of long built-up tensions over Europe's security problems, and an outcome of Cold War mentality and bloc confrontation. Under the current situation, we support Russia and Ukraine in overcoming the difficulties to continue with the peace talks, support the positive outcomes reached in the negotiations so far, support the de-escalation of tensions on the ground, and support the efforts made by Russia and other parties to prevent a large-scale humanitarian crisis. In the long run, lessons should be learned from the Ukraine crisis. The legitimate security concerns of all parties should be addressed based on the principles of mutual respect and indivisible security, and a balanced, effective and sustainable European security architecture needs to be built through dialogue and negotiation so as to achieve enduring stability in Europe.

The two sides also exchanged views and coordinated positions on the Asia-Pacific situation, the Korean Peninsula, the BRICS mechanism, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, and other multilateral affairs.