Talks between Putin and Xi Jinping to be held on February 4 in Beijing

Meeting of Foreign Ministers of Russia and China will be held on 3 of February MOSCOW, 14 of January. /TASS/. Preparations for the Russian-Chinese summit to be held on 4 of February in Beijing on the day of the Winter Olympics opening, are in full swing. It was announced on Friday by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergei Lavrov at a press conference on the results of the Russian diplomacy activities in 2021.

"We are preparing the official Russian-Chinese summit," he confirmed. "Russian President Vladimir Putin, following the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, will visit Beijing on 4 of February - the Olympic Games opening day> Full-scale negotiations at the highest level will be held the same day."

The head of the Foreign Ministry drew attention to the fact that, as it always happens the in case with contacts between the leaders of the Russian Federation and China, the negotiations "will cover the entire range of relations distinguished by a rich bilateral agenda and a unique structure of bilateral relations, which Russia does not have with almost anyone else."

"I mean annual summits, annual meetings government heads and annual meetings of five commissions at the deputy prime minister level that prepare meetings of the government heads," Lavrov said. "Such mechanism has proven to be highly effective. Solutions are being prepared that are thought out in detail, feasible, and actually help to step up our interaction. Thus, last year a record trade volume growth was achieved. Foreign policy issues
According to the minister, given the escalation of the situation in the world, foreign policy issues become of a special attention on the Russian-Chinese cooperation agenda. "The Russian Federation and China, together with other like-minded people, stand for the international law norms, equality, protection of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of countries, settlement of all crises by political means, and non-interference into the internal affairs of any state," the minister said.

According to him, these principles are promoted in the course of practical consideration of specific situations in the UN Security Council and other UN bodies, and in this context, attempts are opposed of replacing international law with rules "which the West invents, insisting that it is on these rules that the global order should be based on." "While the Chinese and our country are declared revisionists, although everything is exactly the opposite: it is the West that revises what is laid down in the UN Charter and other universal norms of international law," the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"Together with Chinese friends and a large group of other countries of Latin America, Africa and Asia, we have established a group of friends in New York to protect of the UN Charter, which has already held two meetings," Lavrov added. "Now we are discussing the possibility of holding a meeting at the ministerial level. Against the backdrop of attacks on the UN Charter, this type of work will be very much in demand."

Vision of crisis situations
Russia and China are also united by a shared vision of approaches to such ongoing crisis situations as Iran's nuclear program and the need to revive the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan, the previous US administration withdrew from, as the Russian Foreign Minister put it.

"Here we can also speak about Afghanistan," he said. "We are closely cooperating within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, where the Afghan and Central Asian issues are now of a special importance."

"We also cooperate in the field of the Trans-Eurasian cooperation development," Lavrov recalled. "President Putin put forward the Greater Eurasian Partnership initiative. It correlates with the Eurasian Economic Union activities, which, in turn, has signed and implements an agreement on trade and economic cooperation with China, and in this context, integration processes in the post-Soviet territories are harmonized with actual steps to implement the Chinese one belt and road concept. ASEAN
According to the minister, together with China, the Russian Federation works with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) "to maintain its crucial role in all elements of the international structure of the Asia-Pacific region."

"Surely, we see the risks represented by the concept of the so-called Indo-Pacific strategies promoted by the Americans and other Western countries, which are obviously aimed at creating dividing lines, at undermining the crucial role of ASEAN and at introducing confrontation, including with military components, to this region at the very time when it needs negotiations and inclusive discussions that will consider the everybody's concerns and develop consensus solutions," Lavrov said.

All these issues are on the agenda of the Russian-Chinese comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction, the minister concluded, adding that they would be discussed both by the leaders of both countries and at the meeting of the heads of the foreign ministries of both countries to be held on 3 of February in Beijing on the eve of the summit.

Source: tass.ru
Image source: aif.ru