The foreign ministers of Russia and China today condemned the West’s illegal and counterproductive sanctions against Moscow over Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Anui province in eastern China, where a two-day summit on Afghanistan will be held.

The meeting comes a month after Russia sent large military forces to Ukraine in a “special operation” as Russia calls it, triggering unprecedented sanctions from the West.

Russia is looking to China for support and cooperation as it increasingly isolates itself from global financial systems and supply chains.

“The ministers had a thorough exchange of views on the situation around Ukraine. The Russian Foreign Minister briefed his Chinese counterpart on the progress of the special military operation… and the dynamics of the negotiation process with the Kiev regime,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“The parties noted the counterproductive nature of the illegal unilateral sanctions imposed on Russia by both the United States and its satellites.”

The ministry said the two ministers had agreed that Russia and China would continue to strengthen their strategic co-operation and talk about international affairs “with one voice”.

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“It was agreed to further strengthen foreign policy coordination and expand co-operation in the bilateral field and in various multilateral structures,” the ministry said.

Wang said China-Russia relations had “withstood the test of international turmoil” and continued to grow steadily, according to Phoenix TV.

“There is no limit to China-Russia cooperation, there is no limit to our efforts to achieve peace, protect security and oppose hegemony,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters in Beijing.

Lavrov, who said yesterday that Russia’s relations with China were at the strongest level ever, had traveled to China for talks with Wang, who were to include representatives from the Afghan-ruled Taliban, Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.