Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Xie Huanchi | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images
China on Sunday described the failed insurgency by Russian mercenaries as an “internal matter” and expressed support for the Kremlin’s efforts to maintain stability in the country.
“This is Russia’s internal affairs,” a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement. statement. As Russia’s friendly neighbor and comprehensive strategic partner of coordination in the new era, China supports Russia in maintaining national stability and achieving development and prosperity.
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and Vice Minister Ma Zhaoxu delivered speeches respectively Meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko on Sunday.
The two sides “highly appraised the current state of Russia-China relations” Russian foreign ministry statement.
They also spoke of “prospects for further strengthening foreign policy coordination and cooperation between Moscow and Beijing on multilateral platforms,” the Russian foreign ministry said, adding that the two countries would “joint efforts to continuously strengthen” relations.
On Friday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Russian paramilitary Wagner Group, accused the Russian Ministry of Defense of deliberately bombing the Wagner fighter jets and claimed that Moscow’s justification for invading Ukraine was based on lies.
His forces reportedly took control of the strategic Russian city of Rostov-on-Don before advancing to within 200 kilometers of Moscow on Saturday. But less than 24 hours later, Prigozhin suddenly announced that his fighters would turn back and stop marching on the capital.
Soon after, Belarus issued a statement stating that Prigozhin accepts proposal from Belarusian President Lukashenko Ask the Wagner Group to cease operations in Russia and take further steps to ease tensions.
Russian state media reports The Wagner leader will now emigrate to neighboring Belarus and criminal charges against him will be dropped.
Chinese statement Ian Bremer, president and founder of Eurasia Group, a global political risk research and consulting firm, said the pledge to support Russia’s efforts to maintain national stability showed it was “not providing direct military support” to Russia.
“(China) doesn’t think they’re providing any military support to Russia, and even though Putin is cornered, he might have fallen, they don’t know what’s going to happen,” Bremer said, pointing out that there’s “Chinese state media barely reported“.
“They’re basically saying, this is an internal Russian affair, and by the way, that’s what the Americans say, and that’s what NATO says,” Bremmer told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Monday.
“China will buy a lot of Russian goods. They will provide Russia with a lot of low-level chips and other products, but they will not provide direct military support,” Bremmer said.