©AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein
The current ties between Moscow and Beijing effectively outclass the outdated Cold War-style model of a military-political alliance, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Wednesday.
Asked by a TASS reporter to comment on NATO’s Vilnius Summit Communique, which stated that the deepening strategic partnership between China and Russia runs counter to the bloc’s interests, Wang said: "Relations between China and Russia are based on the principles of non-alignment and non-confrontation, and are not targeted against any third countries."
"The relationship between the two countries has outclassed the model of a military-political alliance left over from the Cold War era," the Chinese diplomat added, saying that this bilateral relationship differed fundamentally from the North Atlantic Alliance, which, he said, focuses on creating exclusive closed circles while promoting bloc-based confrontation.
The 31 NATO allies issued a communique on Tuesday in Vilnius, as they wrapped up the first day of their annual summit in the Lithuanian capital. According to the document, China’s "ambitions and coercive policies" challenge the alliance’s interests, security and values. The communique also states that the European Union and NATO will continue to address what it said were systemic challenges posed by China to Euro-Atlantic security.
China and Russia are perceived as major, long-term competitors with the United States. Since 2014, China and Russia have strengthened their relationship, increasing political, military, and economic cooperation. In this report, the authors seek to understand the history of cooperation between Beijing and Moscow, the drivers of and constraints on the relationship, the potential future of cooperation between China and Russia, the impact of the Chinese-Russian relationship on the United States, and implications for future U.S. policy.
China and Russia are not formal treaty allies, meaning they aren’t bound to come to the other’s defense, and they are otherwise unlikely to do so in the case of Ukraine or Taiwan. But they call each other strategic partners and have grown closer in recent years. At a meeting in February 2022, days before Russia invaded Ukraine, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin said their partnership has “no limits” and vowed to deepen cooperation on various fronts. Xi and Putin are believed to have a close personal relationship, having met with each other more than forty times since 2012.
The Chinese and Russian leaders have been visiting each other's country at regular intervals. Since 2013, Xi and Putin have held 40 meetings and discussed many bilateral and international issues including how to strengthen bilateral ties, better protect regional security, democratize international relations, improve global governance, facilitate global development, and help build a community with a shared future for mankind.
China and Russia have bolstered strategic mutual trust, and good-neighborly and friendly relations, creating a new pattern of international relations. China-Russia ties are a win-win pattern which includes features such as comprehensive strategic coordination without alignment, closely cooperating but with independent policies, safeguarding of their national interests without targeting each other, dealing with global issues, and settling disputes through consultation.
Trade and economy have been the foundation of bilateral ties. For example, the bilateral trade volume in 2022 increased by 34.3 percent year-on-year to reach 1.28 trillion yuan ($185.41 billion). While China's exports of mechanical and electrical products to Russia increased by 9 percent, and automobiles and auto parts by 54 percent, energy trade hit $33.78 billion in the first two months of 2023, up 36.4 percent year-on-year.
Besides, people-to-people exchanges between the two sides have enriched bilateral ties, thanks to the many China-Russia Year of Exchange themes such as language, tourism, youth and the media. For example, the sports-themed 2022-23 China-Russia Year of Exchange has been a great success.
No wonder many expect Xi's ongoing visit to Russia to boost China-Russia win-win cooperation and promote the integration of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and Russia's Eurasia Economic Union.
True, the two countries have pledged to abide by non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-targeting of any third country. But non-targeting of a third country does not mean allowing a third party to interfere in the internal affairs of either China or Russia.
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