Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Senior Russian official Sergei Shoigu on Tuesday (November 12, 2024) told China’s 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 defence 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 defence pact with Moscow.

Speaking to Mr. Wang in Beijing, Mr. 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,” Mr. 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.

Mr. 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,” Mr. Wang told Mr. Shoigu, according to China’s foreign ministry.

– Russia at Airshow China –

Shoigu was Russia’s defence minister for the first two years of its offensive on Ukraine, before being moved to the Security Council by Putin after a string of military setbacks and criticism from the country’s influential military correspondents.

Mr. Shoigu is also expected to attend this week’s Airshow China, which showcases Beijing’s civil and military aerospace sector every two years in the southern city of Zhuhai.

Russia’s most advanced jet, the Su-57 stealth fighter, made a display flight at the show.

China presents itself as a neutral party in the Ukraine war and says it is not sending lethal assistance to either side, unlike the United States and other Western nations.

But it remains a close political and economic ally of Russia and NATO members have branded Beijing a “decisive enabler” of the war, which it has never condemned.

Last month, the two countries’ defence ministers pledged to deepen bilateral military cooperation.