UN officials must meet to head off growing threats to world peace, diplomats from Beijing and Moscow have insisted, in a joint statement published on Tuesday, with Russia saying both states are concerned about American behavior.
At a meeting in the Chinese city of Guilin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his counterpart Wang Yi said that “at a time of increasing global political turbulence, a summit of the permanent members of the UN Security Council is particularly necessary to establish direct dialogue about ways to resolve humankind’s common problems in the interests of maintaining global stability.”
While the joint statement avoided attributing blame for the tense geopolitical situation, Lavrov singled out the US for criticism when taking questions from journalists.
Speaking about economic measures from Washington currently faced by both countries, Lavrov said that “you cannot do global business by means of ultimatums and sanctions, or force other countries to behave as expected of them. We have a proverb: You can’t force your love on another person. Unfortunately, the United States has not learned this and is acting from the opposite position.”
“I’m convinced that Russia and China will do their best to ensure their safety and protection against the threats coming from the states that are unfriendly towards our respective countries,” Moscow’s top diplomat said.
“We noted the destructive nature of US intentions, relying on the military-political alliances of the Cold War era and creating new closed alliances in the same spirit, to undermine the UN-centered international legal architecture,” Lavrov added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese premier Xi Jinping have repeatedly called for the permanent representatives on the Council, charged with ruling on global military and security issues, to convene. As well as Beijing and Moscow, three other countries share this status on the body – France, the US and the United Kingdom.
Faced with Western sanctions, Russia and China have increasingly sought to combine their diplomatic efforts. At the beginning of March, Yi called on his Russian counterparts to work together to “build a model of strategic mutual trust, firmly supporting each other in upholding our fundamental interests, joining forces against ‘color revolutions,’ and fighting all types of false information, and maintaining our sovereignty and political security.”
According to Beijing’s most senior envoy, “China and Russia have always been the pillars of peace and stability in the world.”
Credit: RT News