Global claim to power: Beijing: China wants to lead the world with Russia in a “fairer direction”.

According to a senior diplomat, China wants to work with Russia to lead the international order “in a more just and rational direction”.

Beijing is willing to continue "strategic cooperation" with Moscow, protect "common interests and promote the development of the international order in a more just and rational direction," Communist Party foreign policy chief Yang Jiechi said on Monday, according to the ministry a conversation with the Russian ambassador in Beijing, Andrei Denisov.

Under the "strategic leadership" of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, China-Russia relations have been "always on the right track," Yang said at the meeting.

Denisov, in turn, spoke of the "fruitful results" of bilateral relations.

Putin and Xi are planning to meet at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan this week.

The SCO includes China, Russia, the four Central Asian states – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan – as well as India and Pakistan.

Since the start of its war of aggression against Ukraine and the associated Western sanctions, Russia has been trying to expand its relations with Asian countries, especially China.

Beijing did not condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, instead criticizing Western sanctions against Moscow and arms deliveries to Kyiv.