Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday, part of a flurry of high-stakes diplomacy in Beijing this week as world leaders scramble to navigate the economic fallout of the war in the Middle East.
Xi has hosted the leaders of Spain, Vietnam and Abu Dhabi in recent days, but the arrival of the top Russian diplomat was the main focus this week, as Russia is a top energy supplier for China.
With shipping through the Strait of Hormuz effectively choked by the Iran war, China has seen domestic prices for gasoline, plastics and fertilizers spike, threatening its industrial stability.
During his meeting with Lavrov, Xi urged China and Russia to “give full play to the advantages of geographic proximity and complementarity, deepen all-round cooperation and raise the resilience of each other’s development.”
“Both sides should maintain strategic focus, trust each other, support each other, develop together,” Xi said, according to a Chinese state media readout.
Lavrov, in his turn, told Xi that Chinese-Russian relations play a “stabilizing role in world affairs” at a time of global “chaos and turmoil.”
Following that meeting, the Russian foreign minister told a press conference that Moscow was ready to increase energy supplies to China.
“Russia can certainly fill the resource gap that has arisen in China and other countries interested in working with us on an equal and mutually beneficial basis,” Lavrov said.
His two-day visit to China also laid the groundwork for an upcoming summit between Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Lavrov confirmed that the two leaders are expected to meet in person within the first half of this year.
The discussions follow a day of intensive talks between Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, which included “in-depth exchanges” on the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.
Russia and China have continued to deepen economic and political ties since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
AFP contributed reporting.
