Communist dictatorships China and Russia are “friends forever, never enemies,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi declared Tuesday during a visit to Moscow.
“The principle of ‘friends forever, never enemies’ … serves as a solid legal basis for advancing strategic cooperation at a higher level,” Wang told Russia’s RIA state news agency in an interview as reported by Reuters.
Wang, who also holds a high rank in the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee, recently chaired a U.N. Security Council (UNSC) conference on “multilateralism.”
He is on a three-day visit to the Russian capital where he is expected to meet his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, as well as Vladimir Putin.
Days before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, China and Russia declared a “no limits” strategic partnership, though Beijing has insisted it remains neutral in the conflict.
Addressing the prospect of peace, Wang said there must be a “fair, long-term, binding peace agreement acceptable to all parties involved.”
He praised the normalisation of ties between Russia and the U.S., dismissing the idea that Donald Trump was trying to support Moscow in order to disrupt its relations with Beijing.
The Reuters report notes Chinese President Xi Jinping has met Putin over 40 times in the past decade and the two leaders have since agreed to deepen ties and cooperate on issues such as Taiwan, Ukraine and mutual rival the United States.
Follow Simon Kent on Twitter: Follow @SunSimonKent or e-mail to: [email protected]
Read the full article here