Overview

• Wang Yi and Sergei Lavrov met twice in Beijing over a three-day span ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Council session in Tianjin.
• Wang hailed the ties as “the most stable, most mature and most strategically valuable relationship between major powers” and both sides vowed to deepen comprehensive strategic cooperation.
• Their talks addressed coordinated positions on the Ukraine crisis, the Korean Peninsula, Iran’s nuclear program and the Gaza conflict.
• Lavrov’s visit followed a trip to North Korea, where he secured Pyongyang’s assurances of support for Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
• China’s formal neutrality on the Ukraine war persists despite its refusal to condemn the invasion or call for troop withdrawal, drawing criticism from Ukraine’s allies that it enables Russian military efforts.