VIENTIANE, July 25. /TASS/. Russia and China should jointly counter interference of outside forces in Southeast Asian affairs, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

They met on the sidelines of events that are being held by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN.

"Other multilateral platforms are also important. Among them, of course, is ASEAN and the whole ASEAN-centric architecture. We have a unified position: We must do everything to prevent it from being destroyed. And we have talked about this in detail just today at a meeting with our colleague from Laos. We believe it is important to continue this dialog, to jointly counter interference of forces from outside this region in the affairs of Southeast Asia and to make contributions to its well-being and prosperity," Lavrov said.

The Russian minister also congratulated his Chinese counterpart on the successful holding of the Third Plenum of the 20th CPC Central Committee.

"The outcome of this event will undoubtedly be of great importance for the future development of the People's Republic of China and for the world economy," he said.

"The implementation of the goals of comprehensive national development of our countries is a priority on the agenda, contributes to the development of strategic cooperation, to which [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and [Chinese President] Xi Jinping pay constant attention, including by working out new frontiers for our economic collaboration and partnership to move forward to," the Russian minister stated.

Lavrov is visiting Laos from July 25-27. He held bilateral meetings with his counterparts from East Timor, Indonesia, Cambodia, Brunei, Laos and a trilateral meeting between Russia, Laos and China. He is scheduled to participate in meetings of ASEAN foreign ministers, the East Asia Summit and the ASEAN Regional Forum.