Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that relations between Russia and China are “stabilizing the international situation” in the week when the announcement of a Chinese peace plan for the conflict in Ukraine is expected.
“International relations today are complicated (…) In this context, the cooperation (…) between China and Russia is of great importance for the stabilization of the international situation,” said the Russian president. welcome the head of Chinese diplomacy, Wang Yi, to the Kremlin.
Russia and China have also shown a willingness to deepen their relations as Beijing seeks to mediate the Ukrainian conflict with a peace plan to be unveiled this week.
“Our relations are developing in a secure and dynamic manner,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during a meeting in Moscow with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, ahead of the meeting with Putin.
Images of #China“s Wang Yi meets Vladimir Putin is coming. Note: This is a small table by the standards of the Russian leader. To show a symbolic closeness #Russia? pic.twitter.com/iHRcrDbvT9
– Stephen McDonell (@StephenMcDonell) February 22, 2023
China promises to “strengthen and deepen” relations with Russia.
Lavrov said that “despite the strong turmoil on the international scene”, the two countries are showing unity and “willingness to defend each other’s interests in accordance with international law and the central role of the United Nations”.
Wang vowed to continue his efforts to “strengthen and deepen Russian-Chinese relations,” according to remarks translated into Russian at the meeting, quoted by France’s AFP agency.
The visit comes after Wang announced at the Munich security conference last week that China will present a peace plan to find a political solution to the war against Ukraine that Russia unleashed a year ago.
Wang arrived in Moscow on Tuesday after meeting the head of Ukraine’s diplomacy, Dmytro Kuleba, on the sidelines of the conference in the German city, where he presented “key elements of China’s peace plan” for Ukraine, according to Kiev.
China has promised to publish its proposal for a “political solution” this week, in time for the first anniversary of the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, on February 24, 2022.
China, a close ally of Russia, has never publicly supported or criticized Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, while repeatedly declaring its support for Moscow in the face of Western sanctions.
US President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Kiev on Monday to show US support for Ukraine.
The number of civilian and military casualties in the war against Ukraine is unknown, but several sources, including the UN, have warned it will be high.
Source: DN
