MOSCOW, April 13. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang exchanged assessments of the situation in and around Ukraine on the sidelines of the ministerial conference of Afghanistan's neighboring countries in Samarkand, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued on Thursday.

"The sides discussed a number of topical issues of the regional and international agenda, including the situation in Afghanistan and Central Asia, as well as integration processes in the Eurasian space. The sides exchanged assessments of the current situation in and around Ukraine," the statement said.

As the ministry pointed out, the ministers "highly appreciated the current state of bilateral relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation and discussed the implementation of agreements reached during the talks between the leaders of the two countries". "The sides noted a high degree of closeness and coincidence of positions on all the issues discussed," the Russian Foreign Ministry pointed out, "They expressed unanimous rejection of attempts to interfere in the domestic affairs of other countries, to impose unilateral approaches by means of blackmail and threats and to counteract the democratization of international relations."

The Foreign Ministry informed that the foreign ministers of the two countries reaffirmed their willingness to increase cooperation and coordination within multilateral formats involving the two states, including the UN, the SCO and BRICS, as well as integration processes in the Eurasian continent.

According to the ministry, the conversation was held in a traditionally trusting and constructive manner.