In a World in Turmoil, Presidents Putin and Xi Count on Each Other
The visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Beijing on May 16-17 definitively consolidated the cooperation between these two major powers in efforts to establish a more equal new world order, making clear that the West’s attempts to drive a wedge between them have failed. This year is the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union, the first country to recognize the newly created PRC in 1949. But the celebration of the two China-Russia Years of Culture in the northeastern city of Harbin, which the Russian President visited on his second day, pointed to an even longer cooperation between the two nations, going back to Sergei Witte.
With the imposition of draconian sanctions by the West, Russia has moved much of its trade to the East, creating new lines of transport and communication. The amount of trade in oil and gas and agriculture products and equipment from Russia to China has increased rapidly. China, in turn, also faced with Western sanctions, is now providing Russia with numerous high-value items, such as cars, industrial equipment and electronics.
There is also extensive cooperation in the realm of science and technology, with both countries bringing their own unique expertise to bear. Putin made reference to this in his comments to students at the University of Science and Technology in Harbin, one of the most important institutions in the aerospace and aeronautics industry, which now includes a Russian-Chinese Engineering Institute. The cooperation covers aerospace, nuclear energy and the development of thermonuclear fusion energy, among many other fields. With the capabilities of these two countries combined, the world is probably looking at one of the greatest concentrations of scientific know-how the world has ever seen.
Much of the Joint Statement, which had undoubtedly been formulated over the preceding few months, deals with the global situation. The two adamantly defend the postwar world order based on the UN Charter, while rejecting the moves by West to replace it with a Western-designed “rules-based order” and “long-arm jurisdiction”. The Joint Statement also opposes any attempts to “seize the assets and property of foreign countries”, as the EU is mooting as a “war measure” with regard to Russian properties abroad.
In spite of the multitude of attempts to browbeat and threaten China into ending any assistance to Russia that might strengthen its military capability, the Joint Statement says that they will “further deepen trust and cooperation in the military field, including joint exercises and combat training and regular joint sea and air patrols”.
Before leaving Beijing on May 16 to spend the day in Harbin, Vladimir Putin held a personal tete-a-tete with Xi Jinping at the state compound at Zhongnanhai to discuss more informally important issues, including the war in Ukraine. This highly unusual visit indicates that the decades-long, indeed, centuries-long relationship between these two major powers has been cemented by the close personal relationship between the two countries’ leaders.
