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Russia and China to deepen security cooperation

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China says NATO should not expand in Asia

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China says it wants Russia and Ukraine to sit down to talk

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Lavrov: Russia will seek UN assessment of Ukraine drone
attacks

(Recasts headline and lead)

By Guy Faulconbridge and Lidia Kelly

MOSCOW, April 9 (Reuters) — Russia and China have agreed
to discuss ways to deepen security cooperation across Europe and
Asia to counter attempts by the United States to impose its will
on the region, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday
after talks in Beijing.

China and Russia declared a «no limits» partnership in
February 2022 when President Vladimir Putin visited Beijing just
days before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine,
triggering the deadliest land war in Europe since World War Two.

Lavrov, after talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi,
said that Putin had suggested strengthening Eurasian security
and that China and Russia had agreed to «start a dialogue with
the involvement of our other like-minded people on this issue.»

«For a long time, there was a Euro-Atlantic security
structure in the form of NATO, of course, as well as the OSCE,
but it is striking itself out from the list of relevant
structures within which it is possible to conduct meaningful
negotiations and agree on something based on a balance of
interests,» Lavrov said.

Russian news agencies quoted Wang as saying that the
U.S.-led NATO alliance should neither extend its activities in
the Asia-Pacific region nor promote confrontation.

The United States casts China as its biggest competitor and
Russia as its biggest nation-state threat while U.S. President
Joe Biden argues that this century will be defined by an
existential contest between democracies and autocracies.

Putin and Xi Jinping share a broad world view, which sees
the West as decadent and in decline just as China challenges
U.S. supremacy in everything from quantum computing and
synthetic biology to espionage and hard military power.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Monday that she
had difficult conversations with China during her visit about
China’s cooperation with Moscow. Yellen warned of «significant
consequences» for any Chinese companies supporting Russia’s war
in Ukraine.

‘PARTNERSHIP’

China has strengthened its trade and military ties with
Russia in recent years as the United States and its allies
imposed sanctions against both countries, particularly Moscow
for the invasion of Ukraine.

China-Russian trade hit a record of $240.1 billion in 2023,
up 26.3% from a year earlier, according to Chinese customs data.
Chinese shipments to Russia jumped 46.9% in 2023 while imports
from Russia rose 13%.

China-United States trade fell 11.6% to $664.5 billion in
2023, according to Chinese customs data.

One year into the Ukraine war, China in 2023 published a
12-point position paper on settling the Ukraine crisis. Russia
has said China’s position is reasonable.

Wang was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying that
China wanted Russia and Ukraine to sit down at an international
conference to discuss a way to cease the war in Ukraine.

Lavrov said Russia wanted the United Nations Security
Council to give an assessment of Ukrainian drone attacks on the
Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station. Ukraine
has denied it is behind the drone attacks.

Lavrov said Russia and China will continue to cooperate in
the fight against terrorism as part of their ever-strengthening
relationship.

Militant group Islamic State claimed responsibility for the
shooting at a concert venue near Moscow where at least 144
people died, but Russia, without providing evidence, has said it
believes Ukraine was behind the attack.

«Our cooperation on counter-terrorism will continue,
including within the framework of multilateral institutions,»
Lavrov said.

Reuters reported last month that Putin will travel to China
in May for talks with Xi, in what could be the first overseas
trip of his new presidential term.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow and Lidia Kelly in
Lisbon; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Miral Fahmy)