[Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang told a press briefing Monday in Beijing that the two countries' efforts were meant "to maintain peace and stability on the Peninsula, stick to dialogue and consultation to resolve disputes, and advance the establishment of a permanent peace regime and complete denuclearization on the Peninsula in parallel."]
By
Tom O'Connor
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Russian First Deputy
Prime Minister and Finance Minister Anton Siluanov attends a
meeting with Chinese Vice Premier
Han Zheng at the Great Hall of the People in
Beijing, November 26. The two
powers have been coordinating on international
affairs more closely than
ever, a worrying trend for the U.S. as it
tries to assert its own
interests. FLORENCE LO/AFP/
GETTY IMAGES
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China and Russia have accelerated their
coordination on international issues involving Iran and North Korea in the
final weeks of this year as the United States' own hard-line approaches were
met with increasing difficulties.
Threats of an undesirable "Christmas
gift" teased by North Korea never came to fruition as the U.S. allowed the
holiday to pass with no new plan to move forward with their
denuclearization-for-peace process, but China and Russia have sought to avoid a
new crisis in the region by going their own route. The two powers introduced a
United Nations Security Council draft resolution that would give supreme leader
Kim Jong Un something he wanted: partial sanctions relief.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng
Shuang told a press briefing Monday in Beijing that the two countries' efforts
were meant "to maintain peace and stability on the Peninsula, stick to
dialogue and consultation to resolve disputes, and advance the establishment of
a permanent peace regime and complete denuclearization on the Peninsula in
parallel."
"Our proposal to adjust some of the
sanctions on the DPRK is to meet the reasonable humanitarian and livelihood
needs of the DPRK people in support of the process of political dialogue,"
Geng said, using an acronym for the official name of North Korea.
"China and Russia are now in contact
with other Security Council members and relevant parties of the Peninsula issue
on the content of the draft resolution," he added. "We expect members
of the Security Council to shoulder their responsibility and take active moves
to support political settlement, encourage talks and safeguard peace and
stability on the Peninsula."
France, the United Kingdom and the U.S.,
however, have argued that the lifting of international sanctions targeting
North Korea should first require the elusive, militarized state to shutter its
nuclear weapons program. China and Russia's joint proposal would need to not be
vetoed by these three fellow permanent U.N. Security Council members and
receive nine votes of approval in all.
Beijing and Moscow have so far backed
President Donald Trump's historic efforts to make peace with Kim but have tried
to encourage him to be more forthcoming with suspending economic restrictions
and joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises viewed as provocative by North
Korea. The White House, however, has largely stuck to its "maximum
pressure" strategy, an approach that also came at odds with Russia and
China's stance toward another longtime U.S. adversary, Iran.
Both countries joined the U.S., as well as
the European Union, France, Germany and the U.K. to sign the 2015 nuclear deal
with Iran, but Trump left the deal last year unilaterally imposing its own
sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Since then, Washington and Tehran have
blamed one another for destabilizing the Persian Gulf region and potentially
threatening the flow of international oil. Here too, Geng told reporters Monday
that "China and Russia have been in close communication and
coordination."
Geng said Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad
Javad Zarif recently spoke by telephone with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi
and was set to visit Beijing on Tuesday. First, however, Zarif traveled to the
Russian capital and discussed the Iranian nuclear deal with his Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow, whose top diplomat "spoke about the
serious efforts that we are making to maintain this important international
agreement that the United States is trying to undermine as a result of the
destructive line that Washington continues."
"We discussed the situation in the
Persian Gulf," Lavrov added, touting both Russian and Iranian initiatives
to create an international coalition rivaling a U.S.-led maritime unit
currently patrolling the restive Persian Gulf. "Russia and Iran advocate
pooling the efforts of all interested states to ensure security and stability
in this region."
Unrest in this energy-critical region has
only worsened, however, as Washington blamed Tehran for attacks on tanker
vessels, Saudi oil facilities and military installations associated with U.S.
military presence in Iraq. In an unprecedented move, the Pentagon conducted what
it called "defensive strikes" Sunday against Iraqi militia Kataib
Hezbollah, a close partner of Iran, in Iraq and Syria after a rocket attack
killed one Pentagon contractor and injured several U.S. and Iraqi personnel
Thursday in northern Iraq.
Iranian officials, including President Hassan
Rouhani, strongly denied having ordered the attack on U.S. personnel and
condemned the U.S. operation. Even top officials in Baghdad, a close partner of
Washington and Tehran, criticized the U.S. move as a violation of Iraqi
sovereignty.
In a statement published Monday, the Russian
Foreign Ministry said it "took with serious concern the exchange of
attacks" between the U.S. and Iraq militias and that it found "such
actions unacceptable and counterproductive." During his press conference
that same day, Geng said that "China has always opposed the use of force
in international relations and advocates that all parties should abide by the
purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter and the basic principles of international
relations."
The latest escalations came after Russian,
Chinese and Iranian forces launched their first-ever joint naval exercises in
the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Oman, further sign of Beijing and Moscow's
willingness to counter Washington's efforts to isolate Tehran internationally.
@ Newsweek
