Kremlin Says After Xi-Blinken Talks It’s Confident in China-Russia Ties 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, June 19, 2023. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, June 19, 2023. (Reuters)
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Kremlin Says After Xi-Blinken Talks It’s Confident in China-Russia Ties 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, June 19, 2023. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, June 19, 2023. (Reuters)

Russia is not worried about potential US attempts to influence China's policy towards Moscow, the Kremlin said on Tuesday, commenting on US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken's visit to Beijing where he held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

During a rare visit to Beijing by Blinken, China and the United States agreed on Monday to stabilize their intense rivalry so it did not veer into conflict, but failed to produce any major breakthrough.

Blinken said however that he had asked the Chinese government to be very vigilant about the possibility that Chinese firms may be providing Russia with technology that it could use in its war in Ukraine, something Moscow calls a "special military operation."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Beijing had the sovereign right to forge ties with other countries and that the process of trying to build predictable relations between China and the United States was an important one.

Russia did not think there was a risk of US-China talks causing problems for Moscow, he said.

"Our strategic partnership relationship with China make us confident that (Beijing's) development of relations with other countries will never be aimed against our country," Peskov said.

Hit with sanctions by the United States and the European Union over Ukraine, Russia has sought in Beijing a market for its energy exports and a partnership in a global anti-Western axis that would challenge the existing world order.

Xi visited Russia in March, pledging friendship, but maintaining an "impartial position" on the Ukraine conflict. A peace plan proposed by Beijing has so far produced no breakthrough.



North Korea Blames South's Military for Drone Intrusion

FILE - North Korean balloons are seen from the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, on Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)
FILE - North Korean balloons are seen from the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, on Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)
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North Korea Blames South's Military for Drone Intrusion

FILE - North Korean balloons are seen from the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, on Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)
FILE - North Korean balloons are seen from the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, on Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)

North Korea's defense ministry blamed South Korea's military for sending drones into its territory for political purposes, calling it an infringement upon the country's sovereignty, state media KCNA said on Monday.
The ministry announced final results of its investigation after claiming that South Korean drones flew over Pyongyang at least three times this month to distribute anti-North leaflets. KCNA has also published photos of what it described as a crashed South Korean military drone, Reuters said.
During an analysis of the drone's flight control program, North Korean authorities said they uncovered more than 230 flight plans and flight logs since June 2023, including a plan to scatter "political motivational rubbish."
An Oct. 8 record showed that the drone had departed the South's border island of Baengnyeongdo late at night and released leaflets over the foreign and defense ministry buildings in Pyongyang a few hours later.
Seoul's defense ministry did not immediately have comment but has said Pyongyang's unilateral claims were "not worth verifying or a response."
A North Korean spokesperson warned that the country would respond with "merciless offensive" if such a case recurs, KCNA said.
Tensions between the Koreas have rekindled since the North began flying balloons carrying trash into the South in late May, prompting the South to restart loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts.
Seoul and Washington have said North Korea has sent 3,000 troops to Russia for possible deployment in Ukraine, which could mean a significant escalation in their conflict. Pyongyang said on Friday that any move to send its troops to support Russia would be in line with international law.