China and Russia they will deepen their “strategic coordination” “relentlessly” and face together “external interference and threats to regional security”, the Chinese president said today, Xi Jinping, during his meeting in Beijing with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
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“This is something that has not changed and will not change. We respect each other’s sovereignty, as well as their security and development interests. We will confront outside interference and threats to region security“Xi said when meeting in person – for the first time in two years – with Putin, amid the growing friction of both countries with the United States, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs collects in a statement.
Putin, who arrived in the Chinese capital today to attend the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics, celebrated that his country’s relations with China enjoy “unprecedented closeness” and that he sees the Asian country as his partner strategic “most important” and a “like-minded friend”.
With the crisis around Ukraine and the tensions on account of Taiwan – whose sovereignty Beijing claims – under the table, Xi closed ranks around his ally by assuring that China and Russia have committed to “relentlessly deepen their strategic coordination” and “defend fairness and international justice”.
Both countries also issued a joint statement on the entry of international relations “into a new era” in which they set out their “common positions” on “democracy, order, development and security.”
Xi assured that this coordination is necessary “in view of the deep and complex changes that the international scene is experiencing”, while
Putin celebrated that his country’s relations with China today enjoy “unprecedented” closeness.
“We have actively participated in the reform and construction of the global governance system, practiced multilateralism, and safeguarded the true spirit of democracy. We played an essential role in uniting the international community to overcome difficulties and safeguard justice.” and international fairness,” Xi said.
The president emphasized that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) must take “a long-term perspective” and row “in the right direction” in order to “safeguard the security and common interests of member states.”
For his part, the Russian president recalled that since both have been in power “China and Russia have supported each other in all kinds of matters”, including foreign policy and economic development, and that the ties between the two countries are ” a model of what international relations should be in the 21st century”.
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According to Putin, China and Russia deepening their relations is aimed at “safeguarding their common interests” but also “the security of the whole world.”
Putin added that the two countries should also pursue cooperation on energy projects and that “energy cooperation will increase with increased supply of natural gas from Russia to China.”
On the sidelines, the two leaders agreed to launch a roadmap to achieve “high quality” in bilateral trade -which last year reached a record figure of 150,000 million dollars-, as well as to increase cooperation in fields such as agriculture, the digital economy or health.
Putin also wanted China to host a Winter Games “of the highest level”, and stressed that his presence at the opening ceremony is “one more example” of the close relations between the heads of state of both powers.
EFE
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