BEIJING: In a foreign minister meet held on Tuesday, China and Russia affirmed their close ties amid the latest wave of Western sanctions on them over human rights. Sergie Lavrov of Russia and Wang Yi of China rejected the hurls at their authoritarian political systems, saying that they were working for global progress ranging from issues such as COVID-19 to the impacts of climate change.
Lavrov and Wang accused the US of interfering in others internal affairs and urged that it rejoins the nuclear agreement of Iran, an issue that President Joe Biden and his incumbent administration has cautiously approached. Both, Russia and China, maintain close relations with Iran.
Wang criticised amalgamated sanctions brought by the European Union (EU), Canada, Britain, and the United States against officials of China over human rights abuses in Xinjiang region. “Countries should oppose all sorts of unilateral sanctions,” Wang said. “Measures like these will never be embraced by the international community.” Lavrov said.
The latest wave of sanctions was bringing Russia and China closer as they accused the West hitting everyone with their own rules, which they think will underpin the world order. If Europe hampers these relations, it will simply destroy all the efforts done for many years that will, objectively, lead to the fact that our (Russia’s) relations with China are improving faster than relations with European countries, said Lavrov.
In a joint statement that was issued post the meeting, the two said that no country should impose its form of government on any other. China says people of the Uighur and various other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang have taken part in job training, shrugging off charges that over 1 million people are locked up in prison-like camps where they are pressed to reject their culture and pledge loyalty to leader Xi Jinping.
