MOSCOW – Russia and China must work together to resist any attempt by the United States to contain them, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday in a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing. The statement highlights the growing partnership between Moscow and Beijing in response to what they see as rising American pressure.
Shoigu, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, emphasized that the strong Russia-China relationship is a stabilizing force in a turbulent world, countering U.S. policies that Moscow and Beijing perceive as attempts to isolate them.
“I see the most important task as countering the policy of dual containment of Russia and China pursued by the United States and its allies,” Shoigu said, as reported by Russian state news agencies.
The statement comes in the context of recent tensions, with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump proposing high tariffs on Chinese goods, raising concerns of a trade war. Meanwhile, the U.S. has increasingly cast China as its primary economic rival and Russia as its biggest security threat.
In a show of unity, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin pledged a “new era” of partnership in May, seeking to present a united front against what they describe as U.S. attempts to maintain a Cold War-style dominance.
The leaders share a belief that U.S. influence, bolstered after the Cold War, is waning. Both see this as a chance to reshape global power structures in favor of a multipolar world order, counteracting what they view as the long-standing dominance of Western powers over international affairs.