Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping pledged to “continuously enrich” his regime’s strategic ties with Russia as Moscow and Beijing continue to present a united front against Western power.
“We hope that the two sides will continue to take advantage of … the strong momentum of Sino-Russian cooperation, elevate cooperation in various fields … and continuously enrich the content of the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between our two countries in the new era,” Xi told Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.
AMERICA ISN'T READY FOR THE ERA OF AI NATIONAL SECURITY THREATS
Xi’s meeting with Mishustin continues a pattern of high-level contact between Russian and Chinese officials since he and Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled a joint communique, weeks before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, that called for a “transformation of the global governance architecture and world order.” Yet their partnership has progressed unevenly, as the war has deepened Putin’s economic dependence on China without producing an equivalent degree of security cooperation between the two regimes.
"Today, relations between Russia and China are at an unprecedented high level,” Mishustin said Wednesday. "As our Chinese friends say, unity makes it possible to move mountains.”
Such celebratory statements have obscured without erasing the limitations on security cooperation between the two sides. Xi appears to have stopped short of granting Putin’s reported request for direct lethal aid against Ukraine, following a series of public warnings from the United States and Europe.
Still, Xi welcomed the prospect of integrating the Eurasian Economic Union, a bloc that Russia established in the hope of harnessing the economies of the late Soviet Union, into his vaunted overseas infrastructure initiative.
“China is ready to work with Russia and countries of the Eurasian Economic Union to promote and connect the Belt and Road Initiative with the union in order to develop and establish a bigger regional market, ensure a more stable and robust global supply chain so [we can] bring real and tangible benefits to the countries in the region,” Xi said, according to a South China Morning Post translation.
Mishustin also appeared Tuesday at a Russia-China business forum in Shanghai, where he projected they would “bring the total trade to $200 billion” this year.
“Our countries stand shoulder-to-shoulder fending off the collective West’s attempts to preserve global dominance and to take advantage of illegal sanctions in order to impose their will on independent countries,” Mishustin said Wednesday, per state-run Tass. “I am convinced that Russia and China will offer a resolute response to those dangerous aspirations and will create favorable conditions for steady progress — toward our common strategic goals.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
In parallel, Putin’s team downplayed the significance of recent espionage cases brought against Russian scientists accused of committing “high treason” on behalf of Chinese intelligence services.
"I would not draw conclusions about any trends in this case," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday, per state media. "We can hardly talk about any trends here.”