Chinese Foreign Minister: China confident of relations with Russia

China is fully confident of the outlook of its relations with Russia, and will unswervingly beef up the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination between the two countries, visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here Friday after meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

"As each other's most important and prioritized partners, China and Russia are developing the comprehensive strategic coordination as a strategic principle, rather than any expediency," Wang said.

No matter what the global and regional situations are, said Wang, the policy of consolidating our partnership will not change, so will our commitment to joint development and rejuvenation as well as upholding world peace, stability, equity and justice.

As this year marks the 15th anniversary of the China-Russia Treaty of Good Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation, the two sides should take this opportunity to inject fresh impetus into their partnership, Wang added.

According to the Chinese top diplomat, the two sides are planning and preparing for a bunch of high-level exchanges and joint programs, such as the alignment of China's Silk Road Economic Belt initiative with the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union project, which he believes will yield fruitful results.

More efforts should be made from both sides to promote such major strategic projects as the construction of natural gas pipelines and high-speed railways, the exploration of Russia's Far East region, as well as in the areas of aeronautics and astronautics, the diplomat added.

Wang said China is confident that Russia would be able to overcome its current economic difficulties, and Beijing believes in the future of its comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination with Moscow and in their pragmatic bilateral cooperation.

Lavrov, for his part, said cooperation with China is Russia's major foreign policy orientation, and the two countries' comprehensive coordination is in the basic interests of each side.

He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinpeng met five times in the past year and the meetings have greatly boosted bilateral ties.

Russia is ready to keep high-level contact with the Chinese side, and reinforce cooperation in the fields of finance, energy, advanced and new technologies, space exploration, transport and communications, while at the same time expand cultural exchange and contact at regional levels.

The two foreign ministers also discussed and reached broad consensus on global and regional issues like the Syria crisis and the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

Wang noted that China-Russia cooperation is not confined to bilateral levels, instead, the two countries have been coordinating and playing active roles in a number of international issues.

The increasingly complicated and unstable global situation calls for much closer communication between China and Russia within the mechanisms of the G20 group, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS, in order to take their due responsibilities for global and regional peace and stability, said Wang.

Lavrov said Russia would work with China in a pragmatic manner to deal with global issues and further boost cooperation under a series of multilateral frameworks of the United Nations.

Before their meeting, Wang laid a wreath at the Tomb of Unknown Soldiers at the Red Square in downtown Moscow.

Source: Xinhua