Sergey Lavrov: “The foundations of international relations are facing the most severe challenges”

Photo: MFA

Opening remarks by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during talks with Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China Wang Yi.

Beijing, April 14, 2026

Mr Minister,

My dear friend, colleagues, friends,

This is our first face-to-face meeting this year; we have had several telephone conversations before which are always substantive and detailed. I have no doubt that we will have even more opportunities this year to communicate and to prepare additional decisions for upcoming contacts between our leaders which have already been planned. We will review this matter in detail today.

I fully agree with you that the foundations of international relations are facing the most severe challenges. Just look at what happened in Latin America, Venezuela, at the beginning of the year, and what is happening now in the Middle East. The Ukraine crisis, which the West tried to artificially create in order, as it claimed, to inflict a strategic defeat on the Russian Federation, is now being used, primarily by the Europeans, to begin nurturing plans to create a new aggressive bloc in western Eurasia and to drag the Ukrainian regime into it clearly with the objective of directing this new entity against the Russian Federation.

Highly dangerous games continue unabated in eastern Eurasia as well, including the Taiwan issue and the South China Sea. The situation on the Korean Peninsula and in the space that has for many years remained a place of cooperation and neighbourliness – I’m referring to the ASEAN-centric space – is being escalated as well. Attempts are being made to break it apart by creating small-geometry and bloc-like entities in order to contain both the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation, which share borders with this most important region that is part of Eurasia.

Our vast continent needs to be watched over at all times. I am confident that we will be able to substantively discuss joint practical steps today, both in line with the initiatives put forward by the President of the People’s Republic of China on global security and other areas, and in line with President Vladimir Putin’s initiative to form common Eurasian continental security architecture.

I believe our meeting is taking place at the right time. Thank you for the invitation. I stand committed to engaging in concrete and productive work.

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