China’s top diplomat Wang Yi meets with Russian President Putin in Moscow

Asia-Pacific, Europe, News February 23, 2023 , by IRIA No Comments

Director of China’s Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission Wang Yi arrived in Moscow on February 22, 2023, to conclude his week-long trip to Europe. Wang met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin to reaffirm close bilateral relations between the two countries.

The meeting between Wang and Putin came on the eve of Ukraine’s invasion anniversary. In brief televised remarks Wang said China and Russia were ready to deepen their strategic cooperation. Earlier, Wang met Sergei Lavrov, where he said he expected to reach a “new consensus” on advancing the relationship between the two allies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that “Russian-Chinese relations were proceeding as planned” and talked of reaching new milestones in areas such as bilateral trade. Putin said the two countries had ongoing cooperation in international affairs and expressed Russia’s gratitude to China.

During his meeting with the Russian President, Wang repeated a famous Chinese proverb stating that “a crisis is always an opportunity”. He added t that the relationship between China and Russia has never been dictated by any third parties. Both sides also emphasized the importance of multipolar approaches to international affairs. China describes the current worldview as the U.S.’s unipolar approach to dominating global leadership.

Wang Yi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Wang said the coexistence of challenges and opportunities is the dialectics of history. pic.twitter.com/EdP6wodUyI
— Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) February 23, 2023

Putin’s meeting with Wang came only one day after he delivered his annual speech at the Feder Russian Federal Assembly, where he was highly critical of the western countries for their attitude towards the Russia-Ukraine war. He announced a unilateral suspension of the New START, the last standing nuclear agreement between Russia and U.S.

The Russian president described the ongoing international situation as ‘quite complicated’ and mentioned that China’s cooperation with Russia is important for stabilizing the international situation. Putin told Wang Yi that “Cooperation between Russia and China is very important for the stabilization of the international situation. We have a lot of joint work. And of course, we are waiting for the President of the People’s Republic of China to visit Russia.”

China’s top diplomat met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov before conducting talks with Putin. Lavrov urged his Chinese counterpart to step up strategic joint efforts to deal with a turbulent international situation.

^{Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and China’s Director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission Wang Yi enter a hall during a meeting in Moscow, Russia on February 22, 2023. (Image Credit: Alexander Nemenov/via Reuters)}

Wang’s trip to Moscow comes at a time when diplomatic activities in the region are at their peak largely due to the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. U.S. President Joe Biden arrived on a trip to Poland and made an unannounced stop in Kyiv where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. This was the first time that a U.S. President visited a war-torn country, without the U.S. forces controlling the critical infrastructure

Wang’s visit to Moscow has also given further rise to speculation by the western media and experts who are expecting China’s President Xi Jinping to visit Russia and meet with President Putin, however, no date or plans have been announced by either side regarding a trip.