Russia will never betray China – Lavrov
Russia deeply values its relationship with China and is committed to fulfilling all obligations to its partner, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
In an interview with US podcasters conducted in English released on Wednesday, Russia's top diplomat was asked to comment on claims that former President Joe Biden made a strategic blunder by pushing Russia closer to China, through Washington’s response to the Ukraine conflict.
“The Americans know that we would not betray our commitments, legal commitments, but also, you know, the political commitments which we develop with the Chinese,” the top diplomat assured. “We never had the relations with China which were that good, that confidential, that long-term build and that would be enjoying support of the peoples of both countries,” he said.
The interviewers suggested US President Donald Trump's approach replicates President Richard Nixon’s historic 1972 rapprochement with China that ensured a continuation of the Sino-Soviet split.
Current circumstances are “radically different” from those of the 1970s, Lavrov insisted.
He contrasted Moscow’s adherence to its promises with the West’s breach of assurances made to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not expand eastward.
“Now they say that there is no legal obligation not to expand NATO. Fine, if you can only implement your promise by court then of course you need legal obligations all over you,” the minister said. “But if you are a person of dignity, a man of dignity, if you agreed on something by political commitment you have to deliver.”
Russia regards NATO’s presence on its border and the pledge to grant Ukraine membership as crucial factors in the ongoing conflict. The Trump administration has suggested that swiftly resolving the fighting in Ukraine could open avenues for mutually beneficial cooperation with Moscow. Lavrov expressed hope that a sense of normalcy would be restored to US-Russian relations, allowing the two nations to resolve their differences peacefully.
