China, Russia hit out at US interference

The foreign ministers of China and Russia affirmed their countries’ close ties at a meeting on Tuesday, amid new Western sanctions against them.

Wang Yi and Sergei Lavrov rejected outside sniping at their political systems and said they were working to further global progress on issues from climate change to the coronavirus pandemic.

At their initial meeting in the southern Chinese city of Guilin on Monday, Wang and Lavrov accused the US of interference in other countries’ affairs and urged it to rejoin the Iran nuclear agreement.

The two officials stood by the stance at a news conference on Tuesday, where Wang sharply criticized coordinated sanctions brought by the European Union, Britain, Canada and the United States against Chinese officials over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

“Countries should stand together to oppose all forms of unilateral sanctions,” Wang said. “These measures will not be embraced by the international community.”

Lavrov said sanctions were drawing Russia and China closer together and accused the West of “imposing their own rules on everyone else, which they believe should underpin the world order.”

In a joint statement on global governance issued after the meeting, the two ministers said no country should seek to impose its form of democracy on any other. “Interference in a sovereign nation’s internal affairs under the excuse of ‘advancing democracy’ is unacceptable,” the statement said.

“We oppose the politicization of human rights issues and reject interference in other countries’ internal affairs and double standards under the pretext of human rights,” the statement read.

Noting that the COVID-19 accelerates the changes in the international landscape and global order, the statement called for setting aside differences, forging consensus, strengthening collaboration, maintaining world peace and geostrategic stability, and promoting the construction of a more just, democratic and rational multi-polar international order.

Both countries said they wanted a summit of permanent members of the UN Security Council.

“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,” they said.