China and Russia pledge deeper strategic coordination at ASEAN summit talks

China said it is ready to "continuously" boost strategic coordination with Moscow. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday that Beijing is prepared to help safeguard both countries’ security and development interests.

Meeting on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign-ministers’ gathering, Wang said the steady contact between Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin had given Sino-Russian ties long-term direction amid what he called “changes unseen in a century.”

He urged closer cooperation on East Asian platforms, backing an ASEAN-centred, open regional architecture and “the right direction” for the East Asia Summit and the ASEAN Regional Forum. Strengthening consensus, he added, would help turn East Asia into “a major engine for global development.”

Lavrov said the pair’s coordination showed the “global and strategic significance” of the relationship and warned against “certain major powers” seeking to provoke confrontation in the region.

Russia, he added, fully supports China’s upcoming rotating presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and is preparing for further high-level exchanges and BRICS cooperation.

The ministers also discussed the Iranian nuclear file and Middle-East tensions. Wang reiterated that force “cannot bring peace,” praised Tehran’s pledge not to seek atomic arms and called for renewed diplomacy to preserve the non-proliferation regime.

Both sides voiced support for ASEAN’s central role in maintaining Asia-Pacific stability.

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