Sergey Lavrov at the meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi

Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the G20 Ministerial Council, Johannesburg, February 20, 2025
Photo: MFA

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks at the meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the G20 Ministerial Council, Johannesburg:

“Mr Minister,

Dear friends,

Colleagues,

We continue our tradition to meet regularly. In addition to our annual bilateral visits, we use any opportunities multilateral events provide to us. Today we have the opportunity to hold such a meeting in Johannesburg on the sidelines of the G20.

First of all, I would like to congratulate you on the Lunar New Year. The Year of the Snake, as I understand. Snake is a wise and flexible animal, the qualities which we wish for everyone involved in foreign policy.

Of course, the beginning of the New Year was quite eventful. There is no doubt that further work in 2025 will also yield results based on the tasks set by President of Russia Vladimir Putin and President of China Xi Jinping, including during the recent detailed New Year contacts.

We have agreed on your visit to Moscow. Our next contact will take place in Russia. This regularity is not artificial.

Frequent meetings are necessary because the global situation requires constant attention, exchange of information, and trust-based assessments, all of which are natural characteristics of our relations, which have been and are an important stability factor in the international situation and in preventing it from deteriorating to a total confrontation.

This is where our goals align.

We will continue working in a strategic link both in the UN, especially in its Security Council, and in the SCO, BRICS, ASEAN, and the G20.

It is an important step in promoting the principles of multipolarity and making our Western colleagues accustomed to honest, fair, equal and mutually respectful work.”

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (right), also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the Group of 20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Photo: Xinhua

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi discussed China-Russia relations with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov Thursday on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, Xinhua reports.

Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era is advancing to a higher level and broader dimensions.

The two sides have maintained steady progress in mutually beneficial cooperation and engaged in close and effective strategic coordination, playing a crucial role in safeguarding the common interests of both countries and their peoples while advancing the process of global multipolarity, Wang said.

China is willing to work with Russia to fully implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state and to further advance China-Russia relations in the new year, he added.

Lavrov, for his part, said that Russia is willing to work with China to strengthen high-level exchanges, deepen practical cooperation in economy, trade, finance, culture, and other fields, and promote the further development of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination.

Noting that Russia and China both uphold multipolarity and serve as stabilizing forces in a complex and turbulent world, he said that Russia highly recognizes the global initiatives put forward by China, values the high level of mutual trust between the two countries, and is willing to continue to strengthen communication and coordination with China under the BRICS mechanism, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the United Nations, the G20, and other frameworks.

The two sides also exchanged views and coordinated positions on international and regional issues of mutual concern, including the situation in the Middle East.

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