Hit with Western sanctions, China, Russia push for UN summit

Beijing and Moscow, accused of human rights abuses, accuse US and Europe of interfering in their domestic affairs.

Russia and China have called for a United Nations Security Council summit over what they term heightened “global political turbulence”, which has seen Western powers impose fresh sanctions on the pair over alleged human rights violations. The two allies, whose relations with the West are under increasing strain, made the call in a joint statement on Tuesday following talks in Beijing between Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi. “At a time of increasing global political turbulence, a summit of the permanent members of the UN Security Council is particularly necessary to establish direct dialogue about ways to resolve humankind’s common problems in the interests of maintaining global stability,” said the statement, published on the Russian foreign ministry’s website.