: China and Russia on Friday outlined a sweeping vision for the future of their already close relations as their two leaders met in Beijing, while hitting out at the United States, accusing NATO of “expansionism” in Europe, and blaming Washington’s Indo-Pacific strategy for fomenting regional tensions.
In their first face-to-face meeting in more than two years, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who met for talks at the Diaoyutai state guesthouse before attending the opening of the Winter Olympics in the capital, described their strategic relationship as robust while also outlining ambitious plans to increase trade. The two sides inked a number of energy contracts following the talks.
At the start of the talks, Mr. Xi said the close strategic relationship between Beijing and Moscow would have “far-reaching” significance for both countries and the world, and said their decision to deepen ties was “unwavering”.
The main outcome was a joint statement on relations “entering a new era” that outlined the two sides’ common stand on a range of issues from democracy and human rights to the security situation in Europe and Asia.
Amid the tensions in Ukraine and the build-up of Russian forces, the joint statement hit out at NATO accusing it of expansionism and called on the security grouping “to abandon its ideological Cold War approaches”, according to an English-version released by the Kremlin.
It also underlined Beijing’s and Moscow’s often-expressed criticism of the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy and said both sides “stand against the formation of closed bloc structures and opposing camps in the Asia-Pacific region”. Chinese experts have sometimes referred to the U.S., India, Australia, Japan Quad as a “closed” group.
The statement said both sides “remain highly vigilant about the negative impact of the United States’ Indo-Pacific strategy on peace and stability in the region” and called for “building an equitable, open and inclusive security system in the Asia-Pacific Region (APR)”. Both China and Russia do not use the term “Indo-Pacific”.
The two sides said they were “seriously concerned about the trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom (AUKUS)”. On Taiwan, Russia said it supports “the One-China principle” and “confirms that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and opposes any forms of independence of Taiwan.”
On the multilateral front, the joint statement said both sides would deepen cooperation with India through the Russia-India-China (RIC) framework and also work to boost the BRICS grouping.
The two sides also announced a number of agreements, including energy deals as well as an agreement to cooperate on building complementarity between their two global satellite navigation systems, GLONASS and BeiDou.
Published - February 04, 2022 09:56 pm IST
