MOSCOW, January 18. /TASS/. The West is trying to drive a wedge between Russia and China and this information is in the public domain, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference on Russian diplomacy in 2022 on Wednesday.

"You asked whether we have any data on whether the West is trying to disrupt our relations somehow. It is not even necessary to look for this information, it is openly accessible. The strategies used by the United States, doctrines in the security sphere as well as declarations between NATO and the European Union, they list both Russia and China. There is a small nuance - we are considered an immediate threat [which] should be dealt with as soon as possible while China [is viewed as] a long-term, leading, serious, systemic threat, that will take more time to deal with, according to Western thinking," the Russian top diplomat said.

Lavrov noted that some independent observers write that the Americans in Europe are making a mistake when they try to simultaneously contain both Russia and China. "Apparently, they consider themselves capable of doing this," he concluded.