China, Russia hold security talks in Moscow amid tensions with the West

Top Chinese official meets Russian spy chief and Security Council secretary on sidelines of multilateral summit

Chen Wenqing tells the summit that individual states are trying to ‘substitute the existing world order with an artificial rules-based order’

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China and Russia agreed to strengthen cooperation to safeguard their “security interests”. Photo: Shutterstock Images

Published: 6:16pm, 26 May 2023

China’s top security official Chen Wenqing met Russian spy chief Sergey Naryshkin on the sidelines of a multilateral security meeting in Moscow, as the two nations move closer on security amid tensions with the West.

The meeting, reported by Chinese state news agency Xinhua on Thursday, was their first since Chen was promoted to the top security job overseeing police and intelligence in October.

As well as being secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, Chen was also elevated to the Politburo – the ruling Communist Party’s top decision-making body – during the leadership reshuffle. He was previously the state security minister.

No details of the talks were released in the Xinhua report.

Chen Wenqing was promoted to China’s top security job in October. Photo: CCTV

Chen and Naryshkin both attended this week’s International Meeting of High Representatives for Security Issues in Moscow – along with officials from more than 100 countries and six international organisations – and both took a hard line against Western hegemony.

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