MOSCOW, November 23. /TASS/. Russia and China will expand cooperation and jointly ward off schemes by some countries to spark discord between Moscow and Beijing, Valentina Matviyenko, chairwoman of the Federation Council, the parliament’s upper house, said on Tuesday.

‘’We believe that it’s unacceptable to substitute universally recognized norms with rules that have been contrived by a small number of countries, based on short-term egotistical interests,’’ she said at a session of the Russian-Chinese parliamentary commission on cooperation, which is taking place in the upper house.

Moscow deems the US and EU sanctions to be a "manifestation of unfair competition that aims to impede the technological and economic development, primarily of Russia and China," the speaker noted. "We possess a powerful tool in parliamentary diplomacy to jointly counter these unsound and discriminatory measures,’’ she stressed.