China willing to work with Russia to maintain bilateral relations at high level: Chinese FM

SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan, April 13 (Xinhua) -- China is ready to work with Russia to maintain bilateral relations at a high level, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang said here on Thursday during his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Qin noted that not long ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a successful state visit to Russia and achieved fruitful results, which provided strategic guidance and fundamental compliance for deepening China-Russia relations in the new era.

China is willing to work with Russia to take as a core task the implementation of the consensus of the two heads of state, Qin added.

The two sides should maintain high-level exchanges and safeguard mutual political trust, promote the Pre-2030 Development Plan on Priorities in China-Russia Economic Cooperation signed by the two heads of state to take effect as soon as possible, and guide the high-quality development of bilateral economic and trade cooperation, Qin said.

The two sides also need to deepen legislative and people-to-people exchanges and cooperation, Qin added.

Qin said that faced with a world of change and disorder, President Xi has put forward a series of major initiatives and concepts to promote the joint building of an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity, to gather the greatest common denominator of consensus among all parties and to contribute China solution to jointly addressing global challenges, adding that Russia is welcomed to take an active part and offer its support.

For his part, Lavrov said that the frequent high-level interactions and strategic coordination between Russia and China demonstrate the positive momentum and full resilience of bilateral relations.

Russia is willing to work with China to implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, promote the priorities in Russia-China economic cooperation, give full play to the role of cooperation mechanisms in various fields, and further facilitate personnel exchanges, he said.

Russia firmly supports China in safeguarding its core interests, actively supports the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative, advocates defending the UN Charter, upholds the principle of sovereign equality, stands for effective multilateralism, and stands ready to work together to safeguard regional peace, stability and sustainable development, said Lavrov.

The two sides will continue to strengthen coordination and cooperation within multilateral frameworks such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS countries, and promote the multi-polarization of the world and the democratization of international relations.

Both sides will strengthen the synergy between the Belt and Road Initiative and the Eurasian Economic Union, explore the feasibility study of developing free trade, and strive for early harvest.

The two sides also exchanged views on the Ukraine crisis.

Qin introduced China's recent appeal to the international community, emphasizing that there is no panacea to resolve the crisis, and all parties need to start from themselves, accumulate mutual trust, and create conditions for peace talks to end the crisis.

China will continue to play a constructive role in promoting political settlement and restarting peace talks, Qin stressed.

While speaking positively of China's position and proposition, Lavrov said that complex issues need systematic solutions.

Russia opposes group confrontation and will continue to adhere to the direction of political solutions, he added.