Milestone: Far East becomes mature fulcrum of China-Russia strategic cooperation

Source
China Military Online
Editor
Yao Jianing
Time
2018-09-13
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose for photos with youths from China and Russia and faculty representatives as they visit the All-Russian Children's Center "Ocean" in Vladivostok, Russia, Sept. 12, 2018. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

Chinese President Xi Jinping left for Vladivostok on Tuesday to attend the 4th Eastern Economic Forum (EEF). This is the first time that the Chinese head of state attends EEF. The Chinese Embassy in Russia called it a major milestone in the history of China-Russia relations.

On the same day, the “Vostok-2018” military exercise, Russia’s biggest military exercise since the Soviet era, kicked off in the Far East. As many as 3,000 Chinese officers and soldiers, 900 pieces of weapons and equipment and 30 fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters participated in the drills. The exchanges between Russian and Chinese armed forces reached an unprecedented level in the history.

The China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination has been further strengthened. The bilateral cooperation in the Far East has broader prospects, a clear signal sent by these two major events.

The comprehensive strategic cooperation between China and Russia has caught the attention of the world. The development of this comprehensive strategic cooperation is constantly moving forward against the negative voices of the West. To this day, the China-Russia relationship has formed a strong strategic stability and the political mutual trust between the two countries has reached an unprecedented level, and economic cooperation has been constantly expanding.

Needless to say, the strategic squeeze on Beijing and Moscow in the global scale by the US has thrusted a close cooperation on the two countries. It is rather naïve to view China-Russia comprehensive strategic cooperation as a byproduct of the US policy towards China and Russia.

In fact, an internal constructive force has long existed in the China-Russia relationship and surpasses their respective relations with the US. The China-Russia relationship has become one of the cornerstones of the two nations’ global diplomatic strategies.

The benefits that the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination has provided have withstood the test of time and various external environmental changes. The importance of such relationship cannot be exchanged by temporary interests approached from other directions. The strategic strength of China and Russia has been tied to the increasingly close cooperation between the two sides.

The Far East has all the favorable advantages and benefits for more economic cooperation between China and Russia. Cooperation in this region also tests the mutual trust and patience of the two countries. Those who tend to sow discord between the two countries can find a way to bad-mouth the space for more economic exchanges in this region through hyping the collective historical memory in the area or the population disparity between the Russian Far East and Northeast China, and create a subtle psychological effect on views about bilateral cooperation from the two countries.

However, the major trend is that China-Russia cooperation in the Far East is steadily moving forward. China has maintained the largest trading partner and the largest source of foreign investment in the Russian Far East for many years.

So far, China has implemented 28 projects with a total investment of $4 billion there. The highway bridge across Heilongjiang River, the Tongjiang-Nizhneleninskoy railway bridge project as well as the Primorye 1 and Primorye 2 International Transport Corridor projects are all under construction.

China’s participation in the Russian Far East development process promotes mutual trust, implementing more national agreement at the local and grassroots levels. 2018 and 2019 are the years of local cooperation and exchanges and the two countries have found the direction for solid cooperation and have achieved real results.

The peoples of the two nations become more and more friendly. This positive trend was achieved amid the dissension of China-Russia relations by Western public opinion. The formation of the above situation is particularly commendable because the Western public opinion institutions are very powerful and have profound impacts on Chinese and Russian societies.

Both China and Russia are major countries, the mutual support of and cooperation between the two countries centered on their respective core interests arevery powerful. If the two sides adopt a unified position on one international affair, it will produce profound impact. This is the core significance of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination. This is not only important tothe two countries, but also to the global strategic balance.

We are very glad to see that both the governments and their nations of China and Russia have maintained a high degree of sobriety.

Disclaimer: The article was published on the Global Times. It is translated and edited from Chinese into English by the China Military online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article are those of the author from the Global Times and do not reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn. Chinamil.com.cn does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same. If the article carries photographs or images, we do not vouch for their authenticity.

 

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