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Editor's note: CGTN's First Voice provides instant commentary on breaking stories. The column clarifies emerging issues and better defines the news agenda, offering a Chinese perspective on the latest global events.
On March 21, during his state visit to Russia, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin jointly signed and released the Joint Statement of the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation on Deepening Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Coordination for the New Era in Moscow. In the statement, the two sides made it clear that China-Russia relations transcend the Cold War military-political alliance and have the nature of no-alliance, no-confrontation and not targeting any third party.
The China-Russia relationship is special. As President Xi elaborated in his signed article on Russian newspaper Russian Gazette and the website of RIA Novosti news agency ahead of his state visit to Russia, China and Russia are each other's biggest neighbor and comprehensive strategic partner of cooperation. Both are major countries and permanent members of the UN Security Council. The two countries uphold independent foreign policy and see this bilateral relationship as a high priority.
In 2022, China-Russia trade exceeded $190 billion, an increase of 116 percent from a decade ago. In the first two months of 2023, bilateral trade went up 25.9 percent year on year to $33.69 billion. China has been Russia's largest trade partner for 13 years. The Belt and Road Initiative and the Eurasian Economic Union have been synergized for people's betterment and countries' development.
China and Russia are set to take this cooperation to a new level. In the Joint Statement of the President of the People's Republic of China and the President of the Russian Federation on Pre-2030 Development Plan on Priorities in China-Russia Economic Cooperation released on the same day, both sides agreed to maintain the momentum of rapid growth of bilateral trade in goods and services, and commit to significantly increase bilateral trade volume by 2030.
Aerial photo showing the first China-Europe freight train linking St. Petersburg of Russia with Chengdu departing the Chengdu International Railway Port in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Feb. 21, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua]
Xi wrote in his article that looking back at the past more than seven decades of China-Russia relations, "we feel strongly that our relationship has not reached easily where it is today." Today, that relationship is under pressure from the "third party." As the joint statement expressed, China and Russia are both concerned about the continuous strengthening of NATO's military ties in the Asia-Pacific and its negative influence on regional peace and security.
And the United States have been trying to drive a wedge between China and Russia by pressuring China to join the West in imposing sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine Crisis. As a Wall Street Journal elaborated, the United States has been trying to "head off a potential proposal" from China for a ceasefire in Ukraine ahead of President Xi's visit. "The pre-emptive criticism of a possible cease-fire proposal is a broadening of a Biden administration effort to use public statements and disclosures to try to narrow Beijing's room for maneuver with Moscow," the article stated.
Real global stability and security require all countries, especially the major powers, to work together. As the world has witnessed over the past several years, a hegemon antagonizing a major power can create turmoil and disruption that ripple far beyond the boundaries of a bilateral relationship. A singular mind to suppress others have gotten the United States and the West into an economic conflict with China and a military standoff with Russia. And as we've seen from the soaring inflation, the mess in the energy supply and worldwide fear of the spread of the conflict, driving other countries into a corner harms everyone, including the suppressors themselves.
As the two big countries in Europe and Asia that wield enormous influence across the world, strengthening the China-Russia relationship is crucial to each other's development and to the global geopolitical landscape. Through multilateral institutions like the UN, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, BRICS and the G20, China and Russia have worked closely on regional and global security while promoting a multi-polar world where differences of ideas and political systems are recognized and accepted.
During his joint press conference with President Putin on March 21, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that China-Russia relations go far beyond the bilateral scope and are crucial to the world and the future of mankind. China-Russia relations holds special meaning for the Eurasia continent and the international system. Whether it's stepping up economic and trade ties or security cooperation, China-Russia relations anchor regional stability. And it's a relationship that, for sake of people of both countries and countries around the world, must be preserved and strengthened.
