More states wishing to cooperate with BRICS, SCO - Lavrov

NIZHNY NOVGOROD. June 10 (Interfax) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi have met in Nizhny Novgorod on the sidelines of a BRICS ministerial conference.

"Our course pursued together with the Chinese friends brings an increasingly positive response from world majority members. The circle of our associates is continuously growing, and the circle of those wishing to cooperate with BRICS and the SCO is broadening," Lavrov said in his opening remarks.

This is the first ministerial conference held after the BRICS enlargement, Lavrov said.

Wang said, in turn, that the key task of China and Russia is to implement the agreements reached at the summit level and to promote multifaceted cooperation.

He noted the importance of closer coordination in multilateral formats "to protect the common interests of developing states."

"Our cooperation meets the fundamental interests of each of our countries and corresponds to the natural course of global development and time. It is not targeted against any third country and is immune to external interference," Wang said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said after the meeting that the ministers discussed new opportunities unlocked by the admission of new members to BRICS.

Lavrov and Wang expressed the readiness to step up coordination in regional and international formats and addressed ensuring security and stability in the Asia Pacific region, the ministry's website said.

"Certain aspects of the new security architecture in Europe were touched upon against the backdrop of stagnation of Euro-Atlantic mechanisms," it said.

At the meeting, Lavrov thanked Chinese partners for their "balanced and consistent" stance on the Ukraine crisis, "based on which Beijing has decided against sending representatives to the 'peace summit' in Switzerland, which does not envisage Russia's equal participation or fairly accounting for all peace initiatives and present-day realities," the ministry said.