Valdai Club

Russian-Chinese cooperation in global and regional affairs has accumulated rich experience and has an effective platform such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the BRICS mechanism. In 2024, Sino-Russian strategic interaction will be even more colourful, writes Li Yongquan, Director of the Institute for the Social Development of Europe and Asia of the Research Centre of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Moscow and Beijing. Russia and China are organising various commemorative events. The healthy development of Sino-Russian relations amid today’s complex and constantly changing international environment is attracting the attention of the whole world.

Both sides have emphasised that China-Russia relations are currently better than at any other time in history. This assessment is a historical conclusion made by the two nations based on the experiences and lessons of the past 75 years of bilateral relations and 400 years of bilateral contacts. Together, China and Russia have found the right principles to observe in ensuring that the two countries may coexist, as well as a way for great powers to coexist. These principles and methods of regulating relations between great powers are of global importance.

The essence of the healthy development of Sino-Russian relations is as follows: mutual respect in politics; mutual, win-win benefits for the economy; and harmony despite their different cultures. The Treaty on Good Neighbourliness, Friendship and Cooperation between China and Russia, signed in 2001 and extended in 2021, embodies the basic principles and essence of Sino-Russian relations.

China and Russia have declared the principles of bilateral relations as “non-alignment with blocs, non-confrontation, and non-direction against third parties”.

China refuses to be a “hostage” of the Ukraine crisis and takes a responsible position, convincing the world of the need to promote negotiations. At the same time, it continues to develop Sino-Russian cooperation in global and regional affairs. The parties have made significant progress in developing practical, bilateral cooperation: in 2023 the trade turnover between the two countries reached a record level of $240 billion. Sino-Russian cooperation in the fields of culture, science, technology and education is developing rapidly.

In the new era of interstate relations, the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Russia is grounded in the parties’ shared long-term strategic interests, an important factor in ensuring stability in the Eurasian region and an important force in maintaining global stability and the multipolar development of the world.

Currently, the common threats and challenges facing the world, such as terrorism, nuclear security, information security, food security, energy security, drug smuggling and so on, continue unresolved. All these problems require the joint efforts of the international community and a proactive response to ensure the healthy development of human society. However, in the process of accelerated restructuring of international relations, a serious split has been observed in the international community. In fact, this split is caused not so much by the Ukraine crisis as by the US game to defend hegemony and curb the right of other countries to develop. The crisis in Ukraine is a change which has no precedent in the past hundred years.

The United States is using the Ukrainian crisis to control Europe, forcing so-called “allies” to stand and jointly suppress economic competitors, in effect to protect hegemony and ensure personal gain for “American priorities”. The current pressure on China in the fields of trade, science and technology, and the humanities is completely unjustified. China will not make concessions on issues related to national sovereignty, territorial integrity, or its right to development, as well as the development path. Real life teaches us that we can only talk about parity with the enemy if we are invincible ourselves.

Today, as we jointly celebrate the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Beijing and Moscow, we must further realize the value of bilateral relations. No matter what changes occur in the world, as long as China-Russia relations are stable, we will have the most important external environment for development and basic guarantees of development and stability in the Eurasian region; the world’s multipolarisation process will have a little more impulse.

From the point of view of the realities of the development of international relations, most countries, especially developing ones and countries with emerging economies, unanimously oppose the abuse of sanctions and other means in relations between states and are against the practice of restraining competitors through the use of gangs. Sino-Russian relations are not only bilateral relations; the influence of strategic interaction between Russia and China, as permanent members of the UNSC and world powers, is global. Russian-Chinese cooperation in global and regional affairs has accumulated rich experience and has an effective platform such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the BRICS mechanism.

In 2024, Sino-Russian strategic interaction will be even more colourful.