Russia and China condemn 'illegal' sanctions over Ukraine war

The Great Hall of the People in Beijing. China this week condemned the sanctions imposed by the West on Russia for is military actions in Ukraine. AP

Foreign ministers from Russia and China on Wednesday condemned what they called illegal and counter-productive western sanctions imposed on Moscow over its actions in Ukraine, the Russian foreign ministry said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in the eastern Chinese province of Anhui, where China is hosting two days of meetings on Afghanistan.

The meeting comes a little over a month Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which triggered significant western sanctions. Some sanctions were already in place after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Russia is looking to China for support and partnerships as it becomes ever more isolated from global financial systems and supply chains.

"The ministers had a thorough exchange of views on the situation around Ukraine. The head of the Russian foreign ministry informed his Chinese counterpart about the progress of the special military operation ... and the dynamics of the negotiation process with the Kyiv regime," the Russian foreign ministry said.

"The sides noted the counterproductive nature of the illegal unilateral sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States and its satellites."

The ministry said the two ministers had agreed that Russia and China would continue to strengthen their strategic partnership and to speak on global affairs "with a united voice".

"It was agreed to further strengthen foreign policy co-ordination and to widen co-operation on the bilateral track and in various multilateral formats," the ministry said.

Mr Wang said Chinese and Russian relations had "withstood the test of international turbulence" and there was an increased willingness by them to develop relations that had "grown resiliently", China's Phoenix TV reported.

"There is no limit to China-Russia co-operation, no limit to our efforts to achieve peace, safeguard security and oppose hegemony," a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said in Beijing.

"China-Russia relations are non-aligned, non-confrontational and not targeted at any third party," the spokesman said.

Mr Lavrov, who on Monday said Russia's relations with China were at their strongest level yet, had arrived earlier in China for talks hosted by Mr Wang that were expected to include representatives from Afghanistan's ruling Taliban as well as Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Afghanistan is suffering an economic and humanitarian crisis worsened by a financial aid cut-off after the Taliban takeover when US-led troops departed in August.