Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi assured Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in a phone call that their two countries remain “trustworthy and reliable friends,” the Chinese state-run Global Times newspaper reported on Tuesday, despite China’s presence at a Ukraine “peace” summit this weekend.
The summit, hosted by Saudi Arabia, counted on the participation of over 40 countries, including Argentina, Egypt, and Comoros – in addition to China – and the presence of a Ukrainian delegation. Russia, notably, was not represented at the summit. Russian diplomats spent the weekend dismissing the summit as useless and griping that Saudi Arabia did not invite Russian officials to the event.
Participants in the summit did not issue a joint statement, promote any roadmap to peace in Ukraine, or agree to any consensus on the top generally. They reportedly agreed to continue to host similar meetings. Both China and Saudi Arabia loudly declared the summit a success – and evidence that their respective countries’ geopolitical clout had increased significantly as a result of gathering the countries in question.
American officials also attended the event, which they described…
