Lavrov and Wang Counter ‘Geopolitical Games of the West’

March 23 , 2021 (EIRNS)—Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his host Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, struck out against U.S. policy against their countries, including its sanctions and geopolitical games, in a joint press conference in Guilin, Guangxi, during Lavrov’s official March 22-23 visit to China.

“We reject zero-sum geopolitical games and reject unilateral illegitimate sanctions that our Western colleagues resort to more and more often,” Lavrov said in the joint press conference with Wang Yi today. “We noted the destructive nature of the United States’ intentions to undermine the UN-centered international legal architecture relying on military-political alliances of the Cold War era, and creating new closed alliances in the same vein.” Russia and China, however, will ensure that their bilateral relations are “safe and are not threatened by those states, which are unfriendly towards our countries.”

He denounced the West’s claims that Russia and China are carrying out vaccine diplomacy.

“Our partners in the West are trying to portray Russia and China as some kind of adventurers in the field of so-called vaccine diplomacy. This is absolutely not true,” he said. He informed the media that Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on all countries that their vaccine policies must be guided solely by considerations of humanity and the interests of saving lives. “It is absolutely necessary for everyone, including our partners in the West, to remember that.”

Lavrov also declared Russian relations with the European Union are nonexistent: “There are no relations with the European Union as an organization. The entire infrastructure of these relations has been destroyed by unilateral decisions made by Brussels.”

He pointed out that “There are only a few European partner countries that have a desire to act based on their national interests.” And therefore, “Objectively, this led to cooperation between Russia and China developing faster than what is left of relations with the European countries.”

For his part, Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang Yi also minced no words for the EU for imposing sanctions on China over alleged human rights violations in Xinjiang. “They [sanctions] will not receive the support of the international community, especially the so-called sanctions imposed on the basis of lies. I believe that all countries should oppose this,” Wang Yi said. “[Western powers] should know that the days when they can arbitrarily interfere in China’s internal affairs by making up stories and lies are long gone.”

Russia and China will work for the protection of the world order based on international law, Wang affirmed. “We should act as guarantors of justice in international affairs. China is ready to promote the international system established by the United Nations, protect the world order based on international law, and abide by universal values such as peace, development, justice, democracy, equality and freedom.”