Beijing- Russia and China have called for a United Nations Security Council summit over what they term heightened “global political turbulence”, which has seen Western powers impose fresh sanctions on the pair over alleged human rights violations.
The two allies, whose relations with the West are under increasing strain, made the call in a joint statement on Tuesday following talks in Guilin between Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.
“At a time of increasing global political turbulence, a summit of the permanent members of the UN Security Council is particularly necessary to establish direct dialogue about ways to resolve humankind’s common problems in the interests of maintaining global stability,” said the statement, published on the Russian foreign ministry’s website.
Moscow has long been unilaterally pushing for such a summit.
The joint statement came after the United States, European Union, United Kingdom and Canada imposed sanctions on a handful of Chinese officials on Monday for alleged human rights abuses against the country’s Uighur population in its northwestern Xinjiang province.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the united response “sends a strong signal to those who violate or abuse international human rights,” as he warned, of “further actions in coordination with likeminded partners”.
China responded by imposing sanctions on 10 European individuals and four institutions that it said had damaged China’s interests and “maliciously spread lies and disinformation”.
Russia too is braced for a new round of US sanctions over what Washington says was its meddling in the 2020 US presidential election, which Moscow denies.
Russia, China slam foreign interference
Russia and China’s joint statement also urged other countries to refrain from interfering in the pair’s domestic affairs.
“Interference in a sovereign nation’s internal affairs under the excuse of ‘advancing democracy’ is unacceptable,” it said.
Commenting specifically on Monday’s sanctions, Lavrov said Russia and China both regarded the measures as unacceptable.
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