By Shannon Tiezzi
During the Russian Foreign Minister’s visit to Beijing, China and Russia extolled their growing relationship.
Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, was in China Tuesday. During his visit, Lavrov held meetings with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi as well as President Xi Jinping. According to a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Lavrov’s visit was primarily designed to “lay the groundwork” for President Vladimir Putin’s scheduled visit to China in May. In addition to paying an official state visit, Putin will also attend the quadrennial Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) Summit, to be held in Shanghai.
China and Russia have been working hard to tighten their relationship, especially since Xi Jinping assumed the presidency in March 2013. Since then, Xi has visited Russia three times, most recently to attend the opening ceremony of the Sochi Olympics. Russia was, in fact, the destination chosen for Xi’s very first trip abroad, symbolizing the importance Xi and China’s government place on ties with Moscow.
During his meeting with Lavrov, Xi Jinping said that relations between China and Russia “are at their best” and have played “an irreplaceable role in maintaining world peace and stability.” China’s Foreign Ministry dubbed China-Russia ties the “major-country relationship that boasts the richest contents, the highest level and the greatest strategic significance.” Of course, China’s other main “major-country relationship” is with the United States—spokesperson Hua Chunying was implicitly contrasting the progress in China-Russia relations with recent tensions in the China-U.S. relationship.
In terms of moving the relationship forward, Xi called for “enhanced political mutual support” between China and Russia. Lavrov responded that China and Russia’s “bilateral strategic partnership of coordination has global influence.” Many analysts have theorized that China backs Russia on controversial international issues (such as blocking UN Security Council resolutions dealing with the Syrian civil war) in hopes of gaining similar Russian support for problems of deep concern to China. Xi and Lavrov’s words hint at this give-and-take relationship, which keeps either country from being isolated in the face of opposition from the West.
Read the full story at The Diplomat