Following new sanctions implemented by the Biden administration on Russian and Chinese officials, Beijing and Moscow have agreed to work together to push back against US sanctions. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov held talks on Monday and Tuesday in the southern Chinese city of Guilin.
The officials denounced “illegitimate” sanctions imposed on them by the US and what they called “destructive” Cold War tactics from Washington. Wang and Lavrov agreed to “work together against sanctions.”
In a Western blitz against China, the US, UK, EU, and Canada all announced sanctions on Chinese officials on Monday over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Earlier this month, Biden coordinated sanctions on Russia with the EU over the jailing of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny.
“[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,” Wang said during the talks, according to The South China Morning Post.
In a statement after the talks, Lavrov slammed the US. “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,” he said.
Ahead of meeting with Wang, Lavrov said Russian China could resist sanctions by boosting domestic science and technology industries and moving away from the US dollar. “The risks of sanctions should be reduced by strengthening the self-reliance of the science and technology industry, [and] promoting settlement by local and other international currencies that can replace the US dollar so as to gradually move away from the Western-controlled international payment system,” he said on Monday.
Russia and China’s decision to counter sanctions together is the inevitable result of the US targeting the countries with such measures. A similar case can be seen with the growing trade relationship between Iran and Venezuela, two countries that are essentially under a US embargo.
Since Caracas and Tehran have nothing to lose by trading with each other, the two countries started trading gas for gold, a currency that US sanctions cannot touch. The relationship has irked the US and led to Washington outright stealing Iranian fuel that was bound for Venezuela.
https://tass.com/politics/1269733
The State Duma allows President Putin to seek two more terms.
There’s something to be said for continuity: Purpose, goals, familiarity, consistent foreign policy with other like-minded sovereigns.
I think it’s great idea for Putin to still be President. I don’t see any one in Russia yet who like him at this time
US foreign policies and sanctions imposed on China and Russia will prove to be self destructive for the west in the long run. There are already indications that Europe (EU) is realizjng this. US is isolating itself.
It’s not smart to anger the dragon over domestic matters–
news report
The foreign ministers of Australia and New Zealand, Marise Payne and Nanaia Mahuta, stepped up their criticism of China in a joint statement on Tuesday. They called on China “to grant meaningful and unfettered access to Xinjiang for United Nations experts, and other independent observers”.
another news report
There’s growing alarm in Canberra over what’s expected to be Australia’s inevitable increased dependence on foreign petroleum amid a major influx of cheaper refined oil products from China. It comes as China’s crude oil refinery capacity is rapidly expanding and simultaneously Australia is about to see its last four refineries cut down by two, given the recent announced closures of an Exxon Mobil and separately a BP refinery. It’s yet another way that Beijing has the upper hand and leverage amid the ongoing trade war which has seen the two sides slap tariffs and even a few import bans on each other.
There are two takeaways from this.
First, China and Russia are stepping up to defend UN Charter and the body of duly ratified international conventions and laws. They are challenging the formulation used by West called “rules based order”.
The questions posed are, what are these rules, who are the authors and who agreed to them. Which then by definition means that “rules based order” is an opinion by a group of countries, and such opinion is not shared by the majority of countries in the world. Sanctions based on such rules are arbitrary, using human rights as an all-purpose tool of coercion.
Second, this means that the challenge has been issued. As Chinese officials put it, it is time for Russia and China to break the silence. But this is not just another clique. They want to define multilateralism as an open framework for coordination for the sake of global security that must be undivided. No privileged cliques that are safe, while the rest are being deprived of security and their development obstructed.
There are only two human rights they urge the world to defend , not “respect”. The right to life and health. And both are achieved through peace, economic development, education, better standard of living and better health services.
The information is now coming fast and furious, hard to keep up. Even harder to grasp consequences.
I have heard one sane thing lately, and is coming from Robert Gates, former CIA boss and the Secretary of Defense. He believes that the real danger to US is the decline of infrastructure, problems with economy, education and health care. And these problems are in his opinion by far more dangerous than Russia and China,