Chinese FM meets Russian counterpart in Azerbaijan

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday met with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Baku, with both sides pledging to strengthen bilateral cooperation and coordination in multilateral frameworks.

Wang, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, congratulated Russia on the successful State Duma elections.

Wang expressed confidence that the upcoming APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Shenzhen in November would achieve fruitful results with support from Russia and other parties, injecting strong momentum into development and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific.

He also called for closer cooperation among members of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) to uphold genuine multilateralism and contribute to improving global governance.

Lavrov said Russia-China relations and cooperation across various fields had continued to advance under the strategic guidance of the two countries' leaders, serving their fundamental interests.

He reaffirmed Russia's full support for China's hosting of the APEC meeting and called for closer coordination within the United Nations, the Group of 20, APEC and BRICS to safeguard international fairness and justice.

The two sides also coordinated positions on upcoming high-level exchanges and international and regional issues of mutual concern, reaching new common understandings.