Medvedev slams efforts to replace global institutions with self-serving decisions

BEIJING, November 7. /TASS/. The attempts by certain states to substitute international institutions with their own decisions at the expense of other countries is an unacceptable practice, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at a meeting with the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, Li Zhanshu.

“There are a lot of contradictions in today’s world, but instead of working together to solve many economic and not just economic problems, we are often forced to divert our attention to fighting off negative trends and decisions made by specific states for their own and, to be honest, self-serving interests,” Medvedev noted.

A lot depends on Russia and China, he added. “We are not just friends, neighbors and big economies, but also permanent members of the UN Security Council, whose voice should be heard at the international level,” Medvedev continued.

“Attempts to replace international institutions with some surrogate decisions, which are made by individual states or a group of states and are aimed against the interest of others, are bad practice,” the Russian PM pointed out.

No country can meet challenges on its own

Li Zhanshu in turn emphasized that the current international situation is complicated and alarming. “Such forces and trends as strong-arm tactics, hegemony, unilateral approaches and protectionism are raising their heads,” he added.

The head of China’s NPC Standing Committee also said that the interests of all states are closely intertwined. “Basically, we now live in a community where a common fate of mankind exists, which can be figuratively described as “I’ve got you, and you’ve got me,” he noted.

Today no country can stand up to challenges alone and live in self-isolation, according to Li Zhanshu. “However, we also know well that there are some forces in the world that are going against global tendencies. They don’t want peace, quite the contrary, those forces are constantly waving a “sanctions baton” and seek to impose sanctions on other countries,” he said.

All this hampers the development of mankind, Li Zhanshu said, noting that under the circumstances it is important for China and Russia to build up their cooperation to make it “wall to wall.” This kind of cooperation is the most crucial one, the head of the NPC Standing Committee stressed.

“We are ready to team up with your country and fully implement the agreements between our leaders to jointly raise our relations to a higher level,” Li Zhanshu emphasized.

He also said that this is his first official meeting with the Russian prime minister, although there have been four meetings over the past years.

Li Zhanshu took the occasion to offer his regards to his counterparts, Russian Federation Council (the upper house of parliament) Speaker Valentina Matviyenko and Speaker of the State Duma (the lower house of parliament) Vyacheslav Volodin.