MOSCOW, January 28. /TASS/. Moscow and Beijing are strengthening coordination efforts within the United Nations in order to boost dialogue on the fight against terrorism, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov said in an interview with TASS.
"We have consistently pursued a policy aimed at strengthening coordination with Beijing within the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly, which allows us to take joint efforts to resist the narrow, utilitarian approaches of the United States and its allies. We maintain close contact with our Chinese partners within the ASEAN Regional Forum on security, which is one of the main mechanisms to agree common approaches to ensuring security in Southeast Asia. We are determined to continue stepping up dialogue with our Chinese friends on related bilateral platforms," he noted.
According to Syromolotov, Moscow values allied interaction with Beijing in the fight against terrorism, which is particularly important amid "a full-scale hybrid war against Russia."
"I would like to highlight the convergence of the positions that Moscow and Beijing take on the majority of key issues on the counterterrorism agenda, including the importance of boosting an open and ‘all-weather’ dialogue and cooperation on counterterrorism in strict accordance with the principles of the UN Charter, the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, universal counterterrorism conventions and the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy," the Russian deputy foreign minister stressed.
Syromolov emphasized that the parties believed that using terrorists and extremists to achieve political goals was unacceptable, as well as employing double standards when determining their responsibility for crimes. The senior diplomat also said that cooperation between Russia and China was key to the successful implementation of the BRICS group’s counterterrorism strategy and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s capacity in this field.