In a display of unity with two of China’s major neighbors, Foreign Minister Qin Gang pledged to strengthen “coordination and cooperation” with Russia and India.
Qin met with other foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a band of states encompassing much of Eurasia, in India on Thursday to maintain stable relations with the area while relations with the West, notably Washington, remain tight.
Despite Beijing’s refusal to call Russia’s military actions an invasion, the US has long urged China to help end the Ukraine war. Last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy for the first time since Moscow invaded.
Qin told Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the SCO summit that China is “willing to maintain communication and coordination with Russia to make tangible contributions to the political settlement of the crisis” in Ukraine.
The two sides also agreed to improve communication and cooperation with other SCO members and safeguard the bloc’s “unity,” according to a Friday Chinese foreign ministry statement.
The government said they also agreed to improve Asia-Pacific collaboration.
Russia, India, China, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan comprise the bloc. In addition, an Indian foreign ministry official said Iran and Belarus would join the SCO during a July meeting in New Delhi.
In a separate meeting with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Qin said China is willing to deepen “coordination and cooperation” on international and regional issues with India and restore “healthy” relations.
Since 2020’s Himalayan border clash, China-India relations have deteriorated. Beijing produced a map last month portraying Arunachal Pradesh, claimed by India, as part of Tibet, angering New Delhi.
Qin informed Jaishankar the border is “generally stable.”
“We should draw experience and lessons from history, grasp bilateral relations from a strategic height and long-term perspective, respect each other, learn from each other, and achieve mutual success,” Qin told Jaishankar.
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