April 9, 2024 (EIRNS)—Following the six-day visit of Janet Yellen to China, the red carpet was laid out for Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as he arrived at the Beijing Airport yesterday. While Yellen’s visit is generally portrayed as helping “stabilize” U.S.-China relations, behind the smiles she made tough talk about China’s “overproduction” and warnings about its relationship with Russia in aiding its efforts in Ukraine. While the Chinese rebuffed the accusations and will continue on their own course, still they are portraying the visit as a positive step in U.S.-China relations.
However, the Lavrov April 8-9 visit actually does reflect more the reality than the polite appearance. After initial meetings with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Lavrov met with President Xi Jinping, an honor which, along with the red carpet at the airport, was not granted to Yellen. President Putin conveyed his greetings to President Xi: “As the People’s Republic of China is marking its 75th anniversary, we would like to express our highest praise and admiration at the success achieved under your leadership over the years and mainly over the past decade. … In 1949, the Soviet Union was the first state to recognize the new China. We have become allies since then. These 75 years have shown the importance, for us and the entire world, of mutual trust, neighborliness, friendship, equality and mutually beneficial partnership…. I hope we will properly celebrate the 75th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations. We are ready to work on new strategic objectives set by our leaders.”
President Xi told Lavrov: “China and Russia have joined hands to forge a new path of harmonious coexistence and win-win cooperation between major countries and neighboring countries, which has benefited both countries and their peoples and contributed wisdom and strength to international fairness and justice.”
