SAMARKAND, April 13. /TASS/. Relations between Moscow and Beijing are demonstrating a high degree of resilience, and the frequent nature of bilateral meetings is entirely justified given the current environment, as the two countries need to synchronize their positions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting in Samarkand with his Chinese counterpart, Qin Gang, on Thursday.
"Our relations have been demonstrating a robust resilience, and the highly frequent nature of [our bilateral] meetings is entirely justified today, given the importance for us to synchronize our positions," Russia’s top diplomat assured the press. He pointed to last month’s visit to Russia by Chinese leader Xi Jinping in particular, which resulted in what he said were historic decisions. The results of the Putin-Xi meeting "require that we intensify [our] efforts across the board on all tracks of our interaction, both for enhancing bilateral cooperation and as regards resolving regional and international problems," Lavrov added.
The Russian foreign minister described today’s meeting with Qin as timely, saying he was very pleased with this latest opportunity to have a face-to-face dialogue.
In turn, the top Chinese diplomat pointed to the rapidly changing international situation, which he said necessitated the maintenance of the strategic dialogue between Russia and China. "China is ready to promote highly dynamic [Chinese-Russian] relations jointly with its Russian partners in order to carry out the critically important agreements reached at the highest level," Qin said.
Earlier on Thursday, the foreign ministers of Russia, China and Iran, as well as Pakistan’s minister of state for foreign affairs, met ahead of a ministerial conference of Afghanistan’s neighbors slated for later today.