MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th February, 2021) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on Thursday held phone talks to discuss the need to step up preparations for the Moscow-proposed summit of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"There has been an exchange of views on a number of topical issues. The need for further work on the preparation of the summit of the UN Security Council permanent member states, which was proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been emphasized," the ministry said in a statement.
Lavrov and Wang also agreed to join efforts to counter challenges and threats faced by the two countries, as well as to increase foreign policy coordination and expand cooperation in various multilateral formats.
The Chinese side pointed with satisfaction to the effectiveness of Russia's efforts to extend the New START arms reduction treaty with the US, the ministry said.
It added that the top diplomats positively assessed the current state of Russian-Chinese relations and discussed the schedule of upcoming contacts at the highest levels.
The Russian president came up with a proposal to organize the summit back in June. According to Putin, the summit between the five permanent UNSC members � China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States � will tackle problems related to maintaining peace, strengthening global and regional security, strategic arms control, as well as boost joint efforts to combat terrorism, extremism and other major challenges and threats.
Lavrov said in early September that the summit would be held as soon as the epidemiological situation allowed. Beijing has previously supported the initiative.
