THE EASTERN PERSPECTIVE
SCO and Strategic Partnership between China and Russia

The Chinese city of Qingdao hosted the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). An important event was the meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin as leaders of two states with significant world influence. There is no doubt that the results of this meeting will have a positive impact on the development of international relations and processes on the world arena. 

China and Russia share similar positions and close views on important international issues. The strategic partnership between China and Russia is based on high-level political trust, on the common interests of the two countries. All kinds of relations between countries are influenced from the outside, and relations between China and Russia are not an exception. But thanks to close ties and high-level confidence between the two countries the strategic partnership between China and Russia is already developing to a certain extent according to its internal logic. 

Absent external pressure, relations between China and Russia would have advanced anyway. Maybe they would have evolved in other directions. Of course, in current conditions, relations between China and Russia are more important for the recovery and balance in international relations, which are undergoing radical changes. 

The projects of Belt and Road and the EAEU were underway before Donald Trump came to power. The two projects envisage the development of infrastructure for the sake of progress and prosperity of the peoples of the concerned countries, and are not directed at sowing violent conflicts between peoples and disorder in the world. It is necessary to judge not by words, but by deeds. The implementation of the Belt and Road and the EAEU benefits economic cooperation between the participating countries in accordance with accepted international rules and promotes understanding between peoples. After its membership expansion, the SCO acquired even more opportunities to implement economic cooperation in the Eurasian region, including cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road and the EAEU projects.


Views expressed are of individual Members and Contributors, rather than the Club's, unless explicitly stated otherwise.