Introductory speech by the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, before his meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of China, Wang Yi, Dushanbe, 31 July 2014

We are glad to meet you on the side-lines of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

Such contacts within the framework of any international forums, in which we participate, have become a good tradition, in addition to our regular exchange of visits. This reflects the special nature of Russian-Chinese relations of strategic interaction and multifaceted partnership and is necessary in order to implement the agreements which are reached between Russian and Chinese leaders.

The May (2014) Russian-Chinese summit in Shanghai ended with the adoption of new large and breakthrough agreements in a range of areas. New contacts between the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, and the President of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping, are expected, including here, in Dushanbe, this September on the side-lines of the SCO summit, and then in Beijing during the APEC summit. We are convinced that you and I and our colleagues and employees will be able to prepare these important events.

Once again, I wish to extend our sincere condolences about the casualties of the terrorist attack yesterday in China. This reinforces our joint commitment to multiply our efforts in fighting this evil, using bilateral channels and within the SCO.

Mr. Minister, I also express my gratitude to the Chinese leaders and people for the proposed humanitarian aid for the refugees from the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions, who are now in the Russian Federation. This friendly gesture will allow us to undertake additional steps to attract attention of the international community to the humanitarian tragedy in the South-East of Ukraine. We have made an initiative to urgently organise an international humanitarian mission to assist peaceful civilians in the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions. We want to use the opportunities of the UN, OSCE, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the international Organization for Migration and expect to receive support for this humanitarian initiative from our Chinese friends.

Thank you once again for our meeting. We will discuss all the aspects of our interaction.