The Samarkand meeting came ahead of a four-day visit to Russia by Chinese Defence Minister General Li Shangfu. China’s defence ministry on Friday said Li would travel to Russia on Sunday and hold talks with Russian military officials as well as visit military academies during the trip.
On Thursday, Qin also highlighted China’s “recent appeals” to the international community, including a 12-point peace plan released in February that calls for a gradual de-escalation of the situation and opposes the use of nuclear weapons. The proposal has had a lukewarm response from Western leaders who say it lacks concrete measures.
Qin has previously said China was “an advocate for a political solution to the crisis and a promoter of peace talks”. China has never condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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China releases 12-point position paper on 1-year anniversary of Russian invasion of Ukraine
Thursday’s meeting was held on the sidelines of a meeting on the situation in Afghanistan attended by the foreign ministers of neighbouring countries Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan as well as China and Russia.
Qin also said that China and Russia would “contribute to the multipolarity of the world and the democratisation of international relations”, referring to their goal of making conditions fairer on the global stage.
“The sides will continue to strengthen coordination and cooperation within multilateral structures such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the organisations of BRICS countries [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa],” Qin said, according to the Chinese statement.
He said they would look into setting up joint free-trade zones as ties grew stronger between the Belt and Road Initiative and the Eurasian Economic Union.
One of the few remaining villagers walks past a building damaged by recent shelling in Chasiv Yar, near Bakhmut in Ukraine, on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters
A Russian foreign ministry statement said Lavrov and Qin “highly appreciated the current state of bilateral relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation” and “noted a high degree of closeness and coincidence of positions on all the issues discussed”.
Lavrov described the meeting as “timely” and said relations between China and Russia had shown “a robust resilience”.
He said that after last month’s talks between Putin and Xi, efforts must be intensified “across the board on all tracks of our interaction, both for enhancing bilateral cooperation and as regards resolving regional and international problems”.
