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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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.
No details of the talks were released in the Xinhua report.
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.
“Individual states are trying to use the pretext of protesting [for] democracy to substitute the existing world order based on international law with an artificial rules-based order,” Chen was quoted as saying during the meeting in a Tass report.
Naryshkin, meanwhile, accused the West of undermining global security and “blaming its mistakes in the Middle East on Russia”.
He said the “Anglo-Saxons” should deal with their domestic civil conflicts, “or better yet, to go to hell, where they belong”.
According to Xinhua, Chen also met representatives from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the BRICS emerging economies – regional groupings whose members Beijing is trying to forge closer ties with as its relations with many Western countries deteriorate.
During the security meeting, Chen touted Beijing’s proposed alternatives to the Western development model – the Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilisation Initiative.
He also met Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, with the two sides agreeing to deepen cooperation to safeguard their “security interests”.
“China is willing to work with Russia to formulate cooperation measures, practise the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, jointly implement the Global Security Initiative and better safeguard the security interests of the two countries and the international community,” Chen was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
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Patrushev said it was Russia’s “unswerving policy” to deepen the Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination.
“Comprehensively promoting law enforcement and security cooperation between the two countries under the guidance of the consensus of the heads of state will provide strong support for Russia and China to cope with security risks and challenges,” he said, according to Xinhua.
The pair met under the China-Russia law enforcement and security cooperation mechanism, which was set up in 2014. Bilateral meetings are held annually to discuss issues such as national security and counterterrorism.
During talks in Moscow in March, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin agreed for the two nations to continue high-level dialogue based on “mutual trust” under this mechanism, to provide “firm support” on security issues and to strengthen security cooperation to prevent “colour revolution”.
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