China, Russia must fight US 'containment'

BEIJING

Senior Russian official Sergei Shoigu on Tuesday told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi their two countries' most urgent task should be countering "containment" by the United States, as they met for security talks in Beijing.

Moscow and Beijing have expanded military and defense ties since Russia ordered troops into Ukraine nearly three years ago, with Chinese President Xi Jinping one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most important allies on the world stage.

But Beijing has also found itself increasingly stuck between a burgeoning alliance of Russia and North Korea, which has sent soldiers to Ukraine and this week ratified a landmark defense pact with Moscow.

Speaking to Wang in Beijing, Shoigu, the secretary of Russia's Security Council, stressed the need for China and Russia to "counter the 'dual containment' policy directed against Russia and China by the United States and its satellites."

"The comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation [between China and Russia] represent a model of collaboration between two powers in today's world," Shoigu told China's top diplomat.

"Although it is not a military-political alliance like those formed during the Cold War, the relations between our countries surpass this form of interstate relations," he said, quoted in Russian news agencies.

Wang affirmed the strength of Beijing's relationship with Moscow, saying China-Russia ties have "withstood the test of [changing] international circumstances and have always maintained a momentum of healthy and stable development."

"The more complex the international situation and the more external challenges there are, the more important it is for both sides to solidify unity and cooperate to defend common interests," Wang told Shoigu, according to China's foreign ministry.