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China and Russia have pledged to maintain “industrial supply chain stability” just days after US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen warned Beijing against supporting Moscow’s war effort.
At a meeting in Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov reinforced calls for their two countries to work more closely together against “hegemonism”, the Chinese foreign ministry said.
“China and Russia will be more active in pursuing the convergence of their interests . . . and work together to maintain international industrial supply chain stability,” a ministry statement quoted Wang as saying.
The ministers’ stalwart expressions of mutual support and veiled condemnation of the US came as Yellen was flying back to Washington after a six-day trip to China.
The US Treasury secretary warned her Beijing counterparts on Saturday of “significant consequences” for Chinese companies that provided “material support for Russia’s war against Ukraine, including support to the Russian defence industrial base”.
Lavrov’s visit to Beijing offered the latest signs of the growing partnership between China and Russia more than two years into Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In a meeting with President Xi Jinping, Lavrov said Russia was “delighted” by China’s success under his leadership and made veiled criticisms of countries “that are trying to contain China’s development, just as they are trying to contain Russia’s”, according to Russian news agency Interfax.
Chinese state television quoted Xi as saying Beijing and Moscow had embarked on a path of “harmonious coexistence” and “win-win co-operation”.
Lavrov backed China’s peace plan for Ukraine, which does not condemn Russia for the invasion and largely parrots Kremlin talking points on the war.
Even as western countries have imposed sanctions and trade embargoes against Russia, Moscow has sustained its economy and defence industry thanks to expanded trade with China, imports from third countries and direct military supplies from North Korea and Iran.
As a result of western sanctions, Russia has become dependent on China not only as an importer but also as the main customer for its exports. China buys about 40 per cent of Russia’s crude oil and most of its coal. It is one of the top three buyers of Russian oil products, pipeline gas and LNG.
Interfax quoted Lavrov as saying relations between Russia and China had reached an “unprecedented level” and that President Vladimir Putin’s re-election in March offered “additional guarantees” for the strengthening of ties.
Wang assured his counterpart that China would “continue to support Russia’s development and revitalisation under the leadership of President Putin”, the Chinese foreign ministry said.
Russia said Lavrov’s visit was in preparation for an expected trip by Putin to meet Xi in China later this year. The Russian foreign minister said the two leaders would also meet at summits of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Kazakhstan in June and of the Brics forum in Russia in October.
Yellen’s comments at the weekend followed warnings by US secretary of state Antony Blinken last week to EU and Nato foreign ministers that Beijing was assisting Moscow “at a concerning scale”, particularly with Russia’s production of optical equipment and propellants and its space sector.
In other comments on Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry said Beijing would dispatch one of Xi’s senior lieutenants, Zhao Leji, to North Korea on a courtesy visit.
The trip follows increasingly close relations between Russia and North Korea — a country Beijing has traditionally sought to keep closely within its sphere of influence — with Moscow needing Pyongyang’s huge stores of military ordinance to prop up its Ukraine war effort.
Additional reporting by Max Seddon in Lausanne
Source: Economy - ft.com
