China-Russia ties at a historic high point and continue to improve

Note: The following article is taken from the Chinese-language "Commentaries on International Affairs."

China's President Xi Jinping has arrived in Russia for a state visit. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Russia, and both sides have noted many times that their bilateral relationship is the best it has ever been. President Xi's visit at this historic juncture will further strengthen ties between the two countries and generate new opportunities for development.

The leaders of China and Russia have met more than 20 times over the past six years, having established a close working relationship and deep personal friendship. During his upcoming visit, President Xi will attend the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which comes two months after Russia’s President Vladimir Putin attended the 2nd Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing. Sergey Luzyanin, the director of the Institute for Far Eastern Studies under the Russian Academy of Sciences, said President Xi's attendance at the St. Petersburg forum will raise the status of the forum.

Chinese President Xi Jinping. [File photo: Xinhua]

As the global situation undergoes profound and complex changes, China and Russia have respected each other's path towards development and firmly supported each other on issues involving their core interests and major concerns. This is an important reason why their major-power relationship has steadily advanced with the highest level of mutual trust and coordination. This relationship has resulted in mutually-beneficial cooperation in a variety of fields, and its strategic importance is evident in the fact that last year the value of trade between the two countries reached 100 billion U.S. dollars for the first time. President Putin said this was the result of their increasing mutual trust.

Since the beginning of the year, the two sides of the first highway bridge between the two countries have been joined, the first China-Russia railway bridge is nearing completion, the first delivery of natural gas via the eastern section of a cross-border natural gas pipeline is set to be made by the end of the year, and bilateral cooperation has been deepening in the fields of technology, infrastructure construction, high-technology, e-commerce, and agriculture. And Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary for the president of Russia, says there is still a lot of room for growth in China's investment in Russia.

Facing sanctions from Western countries in recent years, Russia has advocated for fair competition and voiced its opposition to protectionism through platforms such as the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. China has dispatched high-level delegations to this forum for many years to make it clear to the international community that it will firmly adhere to its policy of opening up, and work to safeguard the open world economy with its multilateral trading system.

With unilateralism and protectionism on the rise globally, and the world order facing growing challenges, determined action from China and Russia to safeguard world peace and stability and uphold international justice has become a ballast for the changing world. The partnership between China and Russia looks set to bear more fruitful results that will benefit the Chinese and Russian people and contribute positive energy to an increasingly complex world.