国内英语新闻:China willing to boost comprehensive strategic coordination with Russia to higher level: FM

BEIJING, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- China is willing to enrich the strategic connotation of its relations with Russia in the new era and promote bilateral comprehensive strategic coordination to a higher level, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday.

In a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, Wang congratulated the Russian side on successfully hosting the meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS summit via video link which have achieved fruitful results.

The China-Russia relations have withstood the test of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wang said, adding that mutual trust between the two countries has been deepened continuously and bilateral trade has stopped falling and rebounded.

Noting that the China-Russia Year of Scientific and Technological Innovation has been launched successfully, Wang said that the people-to-people relations between China and Russia have been strengthened continuously and bilateral ties are facing new development opportunities.

For his part, Lavrov said despite the raging pandemic, Russia-China relations have continued to move forward rapidly, which reflects the high level of bilateral ties.

Russia congratulates China on its great achievements in fighting the pandemic, and is willing to maintain high-level exchanges with China, ensure the success of the Russia-China Year of Scientific and Technological Innovation, and promote the practical cooperation between the two countries in various fields to continuously achieve new results, he said.

Noting that Russia supports the dovetailing of the Eurasian Economic Union and the Belt and Road Initiative, Lavrov said that Russia is ready to coordinate closely with China on multilateral platforms such as the United Nations, the UN Security Council, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS mechanism, jointly safeguard the stability of the international and regional situation, support countries in the region in their fight against extremism and support the ASEAN-centered East Asian regional cooperation framework.