New Delhi, Mar. 3, (dpa/GNA) - Russia aims to comprehensively expand its cooperation with China, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in New Delhi, as G20 foreign ministers met for talks on Thursday.
Lavrov referred to “far-reaching plans to develop our bilateral cooperation” during a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang.
Both countries are a “stability factor in the system of international relations,” Lavrov said, according to a report by Russia’s Interfax news agency.
They had met in person for the first time for talks that were held on the sidelines of the G20 ministers’ meeting.
Moscow has been pursuing closer ties with Beijing ever since it launched its invasion of Ukraine a year ago and is also seeking weapons supplies.
China has so far failed to condemn the Kremlin’s invasion and the US has warned Beijing against supplying Russia with weapons. China had also produced a position paper on the war that was largely met with skepticism, as it likewise failed to demand Russia withdraw from the territories of Ukraine occupied during the fighting.
That invasion was the subject of the ministers’ talks on Thursday.
Meanwhile German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called on Russia to halt the war.
“Mr Lavrov, stop this war! Stop violating our international order! Stop the bombing of Ukrainian cities and civilians. Not in a month, or a year, but today,” she said, in remarks addressed to Russian envoy Lavrov.
“The path to peace is crystal-clear: If Russia withdraws its troops today, there will be no more war,” Baerbock said.
“Because every family that loses a father, a brother, a mother, a child loses an entire world.”
She said it was good that Lavrov had attended the meeting to hear these comments.
At last year’s G20 meeting, Lavrov avoided hearing any criticism as he left the meeting.
Baerbock noted that views differed on the war within the G20. “But what unites us all is that there is not a single place in the world where the Russian war has positive consequences.”
She said that included Russia itself, as can be seen by the fact that thousands of people are leaving Russia.
She also expressed concern that Russia is suspending the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty. Baerbock called on Lavrov to resume dialogue with the United States and return to full implementation of the treaty.
Major challenges such as the covid pandemic could only be overcome together, she said. Germany is calling on its G20 partners to do what the group was created to do, namely give the world hope that the challenges of our time can be solved.
The G20 comprises major industrialized and emerging economies, including Russia and China.
Before the meeting, she demanded a clear signal be sent condemning the Russian war.
“We must devote all our energy to these major global challenges,” Baerbock said before her departure in Berlin on Wednesday. “This also includes countering Russia’s cynical game of trying to drive a wedge into the world community.”
The G20 meeting in India is considered the first major conference since Bali at which Lavrov will meet his Western counterparts.
India takes a neutral stance on the Russian war in Ukraine and has good relations with Western countries and with Moscow.
Last week, the finance chiefs of the G20 were unable to agree on a joint statement at the end of their two-day meeting in Bengaluru, India, showing once more that the world community is anything but united on the issue of Ukraine.
Besides Russia, China also did not want to agree to a condemnation of the Russian war.
GNA