After a meeting with Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the 3rd Belt and Road Initiative Forum, Xi Jinping began by praising the state of relations with his Russian partner.
“Mutual political trust is steadily deepening and strategic cooperation is effective and close. “Bilateral trade has reached historic highs and is steadily moving towards the target of 200 billion dollars a year,” the Chinese leader highlighted.
Noting that next year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of relations between the two countries, Xi said China is willing to work with Russia to “understand the historical trend of global development based on the interests of our two peoples.” His Russian counterpart.
“We must further enrich bilateral cooperation, reflect our responsibility as powers, and continue to contribute to the modernization of our two countries,” the Chinese leader said.
He added that we must make efforts to “collectively defend international justice” and “promote global development”.
Vladimir Putin praised the Belt and Road Initiative launched by Beijing for “creating a more just and multilateral world”.
“We are happy with the success of this initiative, which has the potential to connect and integrate many regions,” Putin said, stressing the “importance of coordination with China” on issues such as logistics and connectivity.
“Equal and Mutually Beneficial Cooperation”
In a speech following Xi Jinping’s speech, the Russian president said he was “happy to see the initiative succeed” and expressed “confidence” that Beijing’s plan would bring “joint solutions” to “related problems” facing the world.
The Russian leader said Russia and China “desire equal and mutually beneficial cooperation”, which includes “respect for civilizational diversity and the right of each state to its own development model”.
The Belt and Road Initiative is an ambitious, yet controversial plan that aims to boost connectivity and trade around the world with Chinese infrastructure projects. Under the Belt and Road, Chinese companies have built ports, roads, railways or power plants around the world, financed by Chinese development banks.
China is now the world’s largest international lender, but the massive international infrastructure project faces challenges from over-indebtedness and commercially unviable projects in some countries, some of which remain unfinished due to lack of cash flow.
The Russian president is one of 20 world leaders invited by Xi Jinping to the forum in Beijing.
Putin arrived in the Chinese capital this Tuesday, despite the International Criminal Court (ICC) issuing an arrest warrant for Putin for the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children.
The meeting between the two comes at a time of geopolitical crisis triggered by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, on which China maintains an ambiguous position.
China acted as Moscow’s lifeline after its invasion of Ukraine. The Asian country is now Russia’s main trading partner and diplomatic ally.
w/agencies