By: Sydney Umstead, News Editor
The New York Times reported that the president of the People’s Republic and general secretary for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Xi Jinping, met with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov.
The article notes that their meeting occurred “days after the U.S. threatened new sanctions against Chinese companies if they aided Russia’s war in Ukraine.” Lavrov stated that the talks between the countries focused on resisting the “anti-Chinese” and “anti-Russian orientation” coming from the west.
Where Lavrov directly mentioned the United States in the country’s protest of “dictatorships, hegemony, neocolonial and colonial practices,” the director of the CCP’s Central Committee Foreign Affairs Commission Office, Wang Yi, avoided mentioning the United States by name. The New York Times discussed how Wang’s “measured” responses are “a reflection of China’s difficult balancing act in supporting Russia while also trying to avoid alienating important trading partners in Western Europe.”
This follows Putin’s and Xi’s declaration of a “no limits” agreement in 2022, “days before Russian forces invaded Ukraine.” The two parties have “tried to forge an alternative world order by marshaling support from the developing world through multilateral organizations.” These include things like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS “a group named for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa that promotes economic and political ties.”