The deepening partnership between Russia and North Korea is helping to stabilize the global security situation, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said, adding that ties between the two countries have reached an all-time high.
Speaking at a meeting with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui on Friday, Lavrov remarked that relations between Moscow and Pyongyang have reached “an unprecedentedly high level.” This has been achieved in no small part due to the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, which was signed in June.
The foreign minister said the document “laid a solid foundation for further deepening our relations in all spheres,” and is meant to play “a stabilizing role in the Northeast Asia and across the entire continent.”
Lavrov went on to thank “our North Korean friends for their principled stance on the events in Ukraine, which are the result of the West’s course of expanding NATO eastward and encouraging a blatantly anti-Russian regime to wipe out everything Russian” in the country.
He also praised what he called “extremely close contacts between the two countries’ militaries and special services,” adding that this cooperation is helping to bolster Moscow and Pyongyang’s security.
In response, Choe noted that the two countries are developing ties in all areas, including foreign policy, the economy, and military cooperation. She added that North Korea is certain that Russia will prevail in the Ukraine conflict, stressing that Pyongyang will “stand adamantly by our Russian comrades.”
The landmark treaty stipulates that if one side is invaded, the other “shall provide military and other assistance with all means in its possession without delay.” The Russian State Duma ratified the document last week.
Meanwhile, Ukraine, South Korea, and Western countries have claimed that the North sent a significant number of troops to Russia, with the US insisting that “a portion of those soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has neither confirmed nor denied the claims, saying that the details of military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang under the security treaty are nobody’s business.