BEIJING (Dispatches) — Pressure from the West is strengthening Russia’s ties with China, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said in a meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing Wednesday.
Mishustin’s visit comes as Russia is increasingly turning to China for diplomatic and economic support.
Relations between the two countries are “at an unprecedented high level,” influenced by the “pressure of illegitimate sanctions from the collective West,” Mishustin said.
Later on, Chinese President Xi Jinping at a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, offered Beijing’s support on Moscow’s “core interests”. China and Russia have in recent years ramped up economic and diplomatic cooperation, growing even closer since Russia, Ukraine war.
Xi told Mishustin that the two countries would continue to offer each other “firm support on issues concerning each other’s core interests and strengthen collaboration in multilateral arenas”, according to a readout by the official Xinhua news agency.
“I believe your trip to China this time will definitely leave a deep impression,” he said. China is Russia’s largest trading partner, with trade between the nations reaching a record $190 billion last year, according to Chinese customs data. Li noted Wednesday that bilateral trade had already reached $70 billion so far this year.
China’s special envoy met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other government officials during talks in Kyiv this month.
Beijing released a peace plan in February but Ukraine’s allies largely dismissed it, insisting that Putin must withdraw his forces. Zelensky’s own 10-point peace plan includes a tribunal to prosecute war crimes committed by Russia.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday the use of U.S.-made military hardware by pro-Ukrainian fighters who conducted a raid on a Russian border region this week was testament to the West’s growing involvement in the Ukraine conflict.
The Russian military said on Tuesday it had routed militants who attacked the Russian border region of Belgorod with armored vehicles the previous day, killing more than 70 “Ukrainian nationalists” and pushing the remainder back into Ukraine.
Footage of some of the destroyed vehicles released by the Russian defense ministry showed U.S.-made military hardware such as Humvee military trucks.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu promised on Wednesday that Moscow would respond to any more cross-border raids by Ukrainian militants swiftly and “extremely harshly.”
“It is no secret for us that more and more equipment is being delivered to Ukraine’s armed forces,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about the fighters’ use of Western-made hardware.