Russia and China lash out at ‘destructive’ US in united front against West

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, left, held talks with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on Tuesday

Credit: Russian Foreign Ministry Handout via Reuters/Russian Foreign Ministry Handout via Reuters

China and Russia on Tuesday lashed out at the “destructive” behaviour of the United States and called for a UN Security Council summit to establish stability between global superpowers.

The rare show of diplomatic unity came after a Western coalition imposed sanctions on Chinese officials over alleged interment camps in Xinjiang, where as many as a million Uighur Muslims are said to have been held in slave-like conditions.

China on Tuesday summoned the British and EU ambassadors over the coordinate sanctions.

After meeting in the Chinese city of Guilin, Chinese and Russian foreign ministers on Tuesday called for the permanent members of the UN Security Council to gather for a summit  “to establish direct dialogue about ways to resolve mankind’s common problems in the interests of maintaining global stability".

The statement also urged other countries to refrain from “politicising human rights issues” in a clear reference to the deplorable human rights record of both Moscow and Beijing.

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said that Moscow and Beijing agree about the “destructive” intentions of the United States which he criticised for “relying on the military and political alliances of the Cold War-era and creating new closed alliances in the same spirit to undermine the UN-centered international legal architecture”.

Relations between Moscow and Washington took another hit last week after US President Joe Biden said in an interview that he believed that Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, was a “killer.”

Moscow and Beijing both view recent Western sanctions as “unacceptable,” Mr Lavrov said on Tuesday. “Punishing anyone on the world arena today is just wrong, and using the same methods against Russia and China is simply stupid,” he was quoted as saying.

Russia is bracing for a new round of sanctions over what Washington says was meddling in last year’s presidential elections. Moscow has denied any involvement.