Russia and China double down on defying US
Russia and China have pledged to deepen their growing alliance and shared opposition to what they describe as the U.S.’s attempts to dominate the world order, with Moscow again seeking to boost trade with Beijing as it looks for new ways to bypass the Western sanctions imposed for its war on Ukraine. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Tuesday after the U.S.
increased the volume of warnings that China should step back from helping the Russians pursue the war against their smaller neighbor. The meeting, which followed separate talks with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also came against a backdrop of a growing tussle for influence in the global south between the West on one hand, and China and Russia and their partners on the other.
Lavrov echoed some of the language of the Cold War in his remarks following the discussions, and again criticized what he called the West’s proclivity for falling in behind Washington, and the U.S.’s attempts to get the rest of the world to follow the same line. “There is no place for dictatorship, hegemony, neocolonial and colonial practices, which are now being applied by the United States and all the rest of the collective West unquestioningly submitting to the will of Washington," Lavrov said.
China has officially maintained a position of neutrality over the Ukraine war, but it has remained an economic lifeline for Russia, deepening trade ties that have helped Russian President Vladimir Putin stabilize his economy despite Western sanctions. Beijing has also sought to position itself as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine, and dispatched an envoy to Moscow, Kyiv and other capitals.
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