Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks at the meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the G20 Ministerial Council, Johannesburg, February 20, 2025

Mr Minister,

Dear friends,

Colleagues,

We continue our tradition to meet regularly. In addition to our annual bilateral visits, we use any opportunities multilateral events provide to us. Today we have the opportunity to hold such a meeting in Johannesburg on the sidelines of the G20.

First of all, I would like to congratulate you on the Lunar New Year. The Year of the Snake, as I understand. Snake is a wise and flexible animal, the qualities which we wish for everyone involved in foreign policy.

Of course, the beginning of the New Year was quite eventful. There is no doubt that further work in 2025 will also yield results based on the tasks set by President of Russia Vladimir Putin and President of China Xi Jinping, including during the recent detailed New Year contacts.

We have agreed on your visit to Moscow. Our next contact will take place in Russia. This regularity is not artificial. Frequent meetings are necessary because the global situation requires constant attention, exchange of information, and trust-based assessments, all of which are natural characteristics of our relations, which have been and are an important stability factor in the international situation and in preventing it from deteriorating to a total confrontation. This is where our goals align.

We will continue working in a strategic link both in the UN, especially in its Security Council, and in the SCO, BRICS, ASEAN, and the G20. It is an important step in promoting the principles of multipolarity and making our Western colleagues accustomed to honest, fair, equal and mutually respectful work.