China, Russia pledge to boost bilateral ties

KUALA LUMPUR - China and Russia pledged to boost bilateral cooperation as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the ongoing 48th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting.

Speaking of the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Global War against Fascism, Wang said both China and Russia have organized celebration events that aim to demonstrate the two countries' historic contributions in fighting against invasion, as well as express their firm determination to jointly safeguard the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and basic norms of international relations.

China welcomes Russian President Vladimir Putin to take part in China's celebration events for the World War Two (WWII) victory anniversary on Sept 3, and will cooperate with Russia on the preparation work, said the Chinese foreign minister.

China is willing to strengthen the strategic coordination with Russia on Asia-Pacific affairs to promote a common, cooperative, comprehensive and sustainable Asian security concept and jointly safeguard regional peace, stability and development, Wang said.

He hailed the successful holding of the seventh BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) summit and the 15th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Russia's Ufa earlier this year, saying they injected new impetus to the development of the two organizations.

China would like to work with Russia to implement the outcomes of the two summits and maintain the development momentum of the two organizations, he added.

The Russian foreign minister, on his part, said Russia speaks highly of the attendance of Chinese President Xi Jinping at Russia's celebration event of WWII victory anniversary on May 9 this year, as well as the outcomes at the two summits in Ufa.

President Putin is looking forward to taking part in China's victory day celebration on Sept 3, said Lavrov.

Developing the China-Russia comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership is one of Russia's priorities in diplomacy, and the strategic cooperation between the two countries is in favor of the global strategic stability, he said.

Russia stands ready to maintain cooperation and coordination with China within the mechanisms of the United Nations, BRICS and the SCO to jointly safeguard world peace and prosperity, said Lavrov.