MOSCOW, May 30. /TASS/. The West is using a set of "dirty tools" against Russia and China, trying to bring drive a wedge between Moscow and Beijing, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko told the 9th international conference Russia and China: Cooperation in a New Era.

"The objective tendencies of the modern world are sharply opposed by the collective West, which uses a wide range of dirty tools in an effort to retain its dominance," Rudenko said.

"The main task of our ill-wishers is to prevent a further rapprochement between Moscow and Beijing and try to bring discord into bilateral relations and undermine our technological and economic potentials," Rudenko said.

"A policy of dual deterrence is being pursued against Moscow and Beijing," the senior diplomat pointed out. "Russia is seen as an immediate threat that must be strategically defeated. China, on the other hand, is regarded as a long-term systemic challenge, with which an equally systemic war should also be waged," he explained.

The 9th international conference Russia and China: Cooperation in a New Era is taking place in Moscow on May 30-31. It is organized by the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). The conference is organized annually alternately in Moscow and Beijing within the framework of the Memorandum of Cooperation between RIAC and CASS, signed on June 25, 2016 during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s official visit to Beijing.

TASS is the general media partner of the conference.