Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday that China is ready to strengthen communication with Russia and other permanent members of the UN Security Council to jointly promote global efforts to fight the COVID-19 outbreak.
In a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, Wang noted that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered important speeches at the G20 Extraordinary Leaders' Summit on COVID-19 via video link on Thursday, putting forward a series of major initiatives on international cooperation on epidemic prevention and control.
The common position shared by the two countries has sent a strong and positive signal to the world and promoted the summit to a complete success, Wang said.
The cured COVID-19 patient Ms. Zeng (2nd R) poses for a photo with medical staff at Hainan General Hospital in Haikou, south China's Hainan Province, March 24, 2020. /Xinhua
Noting that the novel coronavirus is spreading rapidly around the world and the international community is facing common challenges, Wang said China welcomes all initiatives conducive to strengthening international cooperation on combating the infectious disease.
China is also ready to strengthen communication and coordination with Russia and other permanent members of the UN Security Council to jointly promote global efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
For his part, Lavrov highly appreciated China's phased victory in the fight against COVID-19 and spoke positively of the Russia-China cooperation on the COVID-19 fight.
Russia is actively learning from China's experience and carrying out its prevention efforts in line with its own situation, he said.
The Russian side spoke highly of the fruitful results of the extraordinary G20 summit and believes the event will facilitate international coordination and cooperation on a joint fight against the disease, the Russian minister said.
Russia and China share the same or similar stance on major international and regional issues, and faced with the global challenges posed by the epidemic, the Russian side is willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation with China within multinational frameworks including the UN Security Council.