Top Russian and Chinese envoys meet in Beijing to discuss Iran, Ukraine and Taiwan

Russia and China’s top envoys met in Beijing on Tuesday to discuss the Iran war, Ukraine and Taiwan as Beijing stepped up its Iran war diplomacy and tensions with Washington increased.In a jab at Washington and US President Donald Trump that did not mention either by name, a Chinese readout of the meeting between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov noted that the world is increasingly marked by turmoil and instability.The two top diplomats also discussed plans for a meeting “within the year” between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. As of April 2026, the two heads of state have met at least 45 times since Xi took office in 2013, most recently at a military parade last September in Beijing.“The current international situation is experiencing severe turbulence, the harm of unilateral hegemony has intensified, the global governance system is undergoing profound adjustments and the cause of human peace and development is facing severe challenges,” China’s state Xinhua news service reported, quoting Wang.The world “is facing severe challenges, and some countries are attempting to form ‘small circles’ to contain Russia and China,” Lavrov reportedly added, even as Wang called for “international morality” and “world multi-polarisation”.Lavrov warned of “some very, very dangerous games going on” in East Asian geopolitical hotspots that included Taiwan, the disputed South China Sea and the nuclear-armed Korean peninsula, according to an account of the meeting released by Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti.