The Chinese Foreign Ministry promised to beef up bilateral cooperation with the Russian Federation Tuesday in a statement issued following the meeting Monday between Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng and the Russian Ambassador to China, Andrey Denisov.
“No matter how the international situation changes, China will, as always, strengthen strategic coordination with Russia to achieve win-win cooperation, jointly safeguard the common interests of both sides, and promote the building of a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind,” the statement read.
“In the first quarter of this year, the bilateral trade volume between China and Russia reached 38.2 billion US dollars, an increase of nearly 30%,” the statement continues. It’s a boost in trade which the Chinese Foreign Ministry says “fully demonstrates the great resilience… of cooperation between the two countries.”
Ambassador Denisov concurred with the assessment in remarks delivered separately: “Russia always regards developing relations with China as its diplomatic priority and is ready to further deepen bilateral comprehensive strategic coordination and all-round practical cooperation in the direction set by the two heads of state.” Further efforts to strengthen Russia-China ties, Denisov said, will “continuously benefit the two peoples and safeguard international equity and justice.”
Elsewhere on Monday Chinese Ambassador to the US Qin Gang slammed those “clamoring about a “Beijing-Moscow Axis,””–which he suggested is a “a dangerous misinterpretation of China-Russia relations”–in an article in the National Interest. The Ambassador noted, however, that “the China-Russia relationship has made great progress” in the past 30 years and condemned unspecified critics for “asking China to bear responsibility” for the ongoing Russian special operation aimed at denazifying and demilitarizing Ukraine and “wielding the stick of sanctions against China to coerce the renunciation of its independent foreign policy of peace.”
Such “words and actions,” Ambassador Gang explained, “are not helpful to resolving the crisis or ensuring the stability of China-U.S. relations.”
The decision by Moscow and Beijing to pursue further development of their mutually beneficial ties has been largely met with consternation in Washington. Last month, Biden claimed he warned Chinese President Xi Jinping of potential “consequences” for continuing to stand with Moscow in a phone call that lasted nearly two hours. Biden subsequently insisted that he’d issued no “threats” during the conversation.