Sergei Lavrov, left, and Wang Yi exchanging documents in Guilin.AFPHANDOUT  

China and Russia have proposed setting up a new “regional security dialogue platform” to address security concerns of countries in the region, as their Foreign Ministers hit out at the United States for “forming small circles to seek bloc confrontation”.

The proposal came following a meeting between Foreign Minister Wang Yi of China and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in the southern Chinese city of Guilin, and days after the March 19 U.S.-China summit in Alaska and the March 12 leaders’ summit of the Quad (India, Australia, Japan and the U.S.), grouping that both Beijing and Moscow have viewed warily.

Both sides said in a joint press release that they “also proposed the establishment of a regional security dialogue platform to converge a new consensus on resolving the security concerns of countries in the region”. China and Russia are already part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) security grouping, which includes India.

The press release said "the international community believes that the United States should reflect on the damage it has done to global peace and development in recent years, halt unilateral bullying, stop meddling in other countries' domestic affairs, and stop forming small circles to seek bloc confrontation.”

True multilateralism

China and Russia have rejected U.S. calls for “a rules-based order” — a call endorsed by the Quad summit — and instead said “all countries should follow the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations” and "uphold true multilateralism, make international relations more democratic, and accept and promote peaceful coexistence and common development of countries with different social systems and development paths”.

The two-day dialogue covered a range of issues, including Afghanistan, the Iranian nuclear issue, climate change and “the Asia-Pacific situation”, the press release said. On the Myanmar coup, both sides “voiced support for all parties in Myanmar to seek a political solution to the current crisis within the Constitution and legal framework, avoid further conflict and bloodshed, prevent external forces from taking advantage of the crisis for their own gains, and continue to advance the democratic transition”.

In a separate joint statement following the conclusion of the two-day talks, both sides called for a summit of the UN Security Council’s five permanent members to be held. “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,” Reuters quoted the joint statement, published on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website, as saying.

The statement also hit out at attempts by the West to interfere in both countries’ internal affairs. Both Ministers, in remarks to the press, criticised the U.S. and the EU for their recent sanctions on Russia and China.