Russia and China should join forces in Southeast Asia, Lavrov tells Wang at Asean meeting
- China’s foreign minister pledges to work with Russia to safeguard their ‘core interests’ and ‘always be a good partner’
Without specifying, he said: “We have a unified position. We must do everything to prevent it from being destroyed, [and] we believe it is important … to jointly counter interference by forces from outside this region in the affairs of Southeast Asia and to make contributions to its well-being and prosperity,” according to Russian news agency Tass.
Lavrov thanked Wang for China’s “balanced and consistent” position on the Ukraine crisis and welcomed Beijing’s initiatives to promote approaches that took into account the interests of all the stakeholders, according to Russia’s foreign ministry.
On Friday, Beijing announced that special envoy Li Hui would visit Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia from Sunday in the latest round of “shuttle diplomacy” on the Ukraine war.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Li aimed to “further exchange views with major members of the Global South” with the hope of “building conditions for the resumption of peace talks”.
The two diplomats also discussed “cooperation within Asean, considering the fact that certain countries have become increasingly proactive in setting up restricted bloc-based military and political mechanisms which are designed to undermine the Asean-centric security and stability framework for the Asia-Pacific region”.