RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in the city of Tunxi on Wednesday for the first time since Moscow launched military action in Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Unlike many Western nations and some Asian countries, Beijing has refused to condemn Moscow and rejected calls to impose sanctions on Russia.
On Wednesday, the neighboring countries will work to achieve “a multipolar, fair, and democratic world order,” Lavrov said after arriving in Tunxi, a city in China’s eastern inland Anhui Province.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova posted a photo of the two ministers greeting each other with an elbow bump.
Beijing has argued that economic restrictions disrupt world trade and will not resolve the conflict and that only dialogue and diplomacy can lead to peace.
Wang believes economic sanctions disrupt world trade and don’t help resolve conflict, stating earlier this month that China’s relations with Russia are “one of the most crucial bilateral relationships in the world” and hailed the friendship between the pair as “ironclad.”
Tunxi will also host a summit on Afghanistan involving Russia, the US, and Pakistan Thursday.