G7’s ‘aggressive attitude’ pushing Russia and China together, envoy says

Name: China, Russia foreign ministers meet as countries stand ‘back to back’ amid rise in US tensions
Uploaded: 2021-05-20T15:43:53.000Z
Duration: 1 min 12 s
Description: China, Russia foreign ministers meet as countries stand ‘back to back’ amid rise in US tensions

Russia’s ambassador to Britain Andrei Kelin said the grouping is playing a ‘dangerous game’ by making baseless criticism of the Kremlin

The diplomat said Moscow would proceed according to its own geopolitical interests and the G7 has no grounds to judge other countries

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Reuters

Published: 11:43pm, 20 May 2021Updated: 12:58am, 21 May 2021

The Group of Seven is playing a “dangerous game” by making aggressive and baseless criticism of the Kremlin because it pushes Moscow closer to Beijing, Russia’s ambassador to London, Andrei Kelin, said on Thursday.

G7 foreign ministers this month scolded both China and Russia, casting the Kremlin as malicious and Beijing as a bully, but beyond words there were few concrete steps aside from expressing support for Taiwan and Ukraine.

The G7, in a 12,400-word communique, said Russia was a destabilising influence on the world because of its 2014 annexation of Crimea, its build up on Ukraine’s border and its meddling in the internal affairs of other countries.

Kelin said the G7’s critique was biased, confrontational, lacked substance and was stoking anti-Western feelings among Russians, while its aggressive attitude towards Russia and China was pushing the two powers together.

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China, Russia foreign ministers meet as countries stand ‘back to back’ amid rise in US tensions

“This is a dangerous game,” Kelin said. “Russia and China have enormous potential in different fields – in the economy, in technology, in military capacities, in politics – this potential is spread around the world.”