China And Russia Pledge Deepened Strategic Ties 'No Matter What'
This is despite the fact that Washington has stepped up its rhetoric in an attempt to highlight heinous war crimes allegedly committed in areas like Bucha and now Mariupol. While the Biden administration recently admitted that it "has not seen" China providing Russia with military equipment, as some previous administration officials had suspected, the accusation and suspicion have lingered over Beijing, which is still under Western pressure to come out definitively against the Russian invasion.
"No matter how the international landscape may change, China will continue to strengthen strategic coordination with Russia for win-win cooperation, jointly safeguard the common interests of the two countries and promote the building of a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind,” Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng said in a late Tuesday statement.
The remark came after Le met with Russian envoy Andrey Ivanovich Denisov, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Even as unprecedented Western anti-Russia sanctions threaten to destroy its economy and isolate Iran, the gathering appeared to be full of confidence. According to Bloomberg, an almost 30% increase in bilateral commerce in the first three months of 2022 demonstrates "the great resilience and internal vitality of bilateral cooperation."
The Russian envoy, in turn, was cited as adding that relations with China remain a major "diplomatic priority."
"Russia always regards developing relations with China as its diplomatic priority and is ready to further deepen bilateral comprehensive strategic coordination and all-round practical cooperation in the direction set by the two heads of state, so as to continuously benefit the two peoples and safeguard international equity and justice," Denisov said.
The summit and declarations are almost certain to confirm NATO members' concerns about what has been labeled China's "no-limits" relationship with Moscow. In turn, China has stated that Russia's security concerns about NATO expansion are valid and that the negotiation table is critical to halting the bloodshed in Ukraine, which has killed thousands on both sides.
China stated this week that it will send a high-level diplomatic delegation to eight Central and Eastern European countries to discuss the Ukraine situation, in an attempt to show its point while flexing its diplomatic muscle.
"Huo Yuzhen, China's special representative to China-Central and Eastern Europe Cooperation, will head a delegation to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia and Poland, according to Wang Lutong, the director-general of European affairs at China's foreign ministry," The South China Morning Post reported Tuesday.