Lavrov hails China as part of emerging ‘just world order’

BEIJING, Mar 30 (AFP/Reuters): Beijing and Moscow advanced a vision of a new world order Wednesday as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made his first visit to key ally China since the invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow's top diplomat landed in the eastern city of Huangshan early Wednesday for a series of meetings about the future of Afghanistan.
But Russia's bloody assault on Ukraine is likely to loom large over proceedings.
Beijing has refused to condemn the invasion and has provided a level of diplomatic cover for an increasingly isolated Russia.
US officials have accused China of signalling "willingness" to provide military and economic aid to Russia, while President Joe Biden has compared the invasion of Ukraine to China's crushing of protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
But on Wednesday, Lavrov painted a picture of a new world order, saying the world was "living through a very serious stage in the history of international relations".
"We, together with you, and with our sympathisers will move towards a multipolar, just, democratic world order," Lavrov said in a video released by the Russian foreign ministry ahead of a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
The two ministers were shown on Chinese state TV in face masks bumping elbows in front of their national flags.
A readout from the Chinese foreign ministry quoted Wang Yi saying that "China-Russia relations have withstood the new test of the changing international situation, maintained the correct direction of progress and shown tenacious development momentum."
Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters earlier that Moscow and Beijing will continue efforts in "advancing global multipolarity and the democratisation of international relations".
Wang added that "China-Russia cooperation has no limits", repeating a line used by President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to characterise ties.
Meanwhile, Russian forces bombarded the outskirts of Kyiv and a besieged city in northern Ukraine on Wednesday, a day after promising to scale down operations there in what the West dismissed as a ploy to regroup by invaders taking heavy losses.
Nearly five weeks into an invasion in which it has failed to capture any major cities, Russia said it would curtail operations near Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv "to increase mutual trust" for peace talks.
But intensified bombardment could be heard in Kyiv on Wednesday morning from the direction of frontline suburbs where Ukrainian forces have regained territory in recent days. The capital itself was not hit, but windows rattled from the relentless artillery on its outskirts.
Reuters journalists southeast of Irpin, a Kyiv suburb which has seen weeks of heavy clashes, heard the sound of frequent shelling and ordnance exploding on the ground and in the air. Ukrainians evacuating spoke of heavy shelling north of Irpin, shells landing in Irpin itself and dead bodies in the streets.
Chernihiv's Mayor Vladyslav Astroshenko said Russian bombardment of that city had intensified over the past 24 hours, with more than 100,000 people trapped inside with just enough food and medical supplies to last about another week.