Russia and China should not only strengthen their cooperation, but also jointly resist the hegemony of the Western world. This is stated in the statement of the Chinese Foreign Ministry following the talks of the foreign ministers of the two countries. According to experts, the tone of this meeting was different than usual: relations between Moscow and Beijing have really moved to a new level.
Russia and China must work together to counteract the false orders established by the hegemons. This is stated in a statement by the Chinese Foreign Ministry following the meeting of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.
It also stresses that "in the current situation, China and Russia should jointly promote regional development." "We need to create stable and reliable industrial supply chains in the region," Wang Yi is sure.
In addition, China and Russia should "lead the regional process to ensure genuine security." "We need to jointly promote greater cohesion and prosperity in Eurasia, purposefully defend the principles of the formation of international relations, strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation, and direct global development in the right direction," the minister believes.
Following the talks, Beijing announced plans to increase the scale of cooperation with Moscow in the fields of healthcare, communications and the digital economy, as well as "promote the integration of the projects of the One Belt, One Road initiative and the EAEU, strengthening relations in accordance with the objectives of the Greater Eurasian Partnership."
Alexander Lukin, scientific director of the Institute of China and Modern Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences, points out that the tone of the meeting between Lavrov and Wang Yi was "completely new", more emotional and frank. "After Nancy Pelosi's trip to Taiwan, China is trying to intensify relations with those countries that strongly condemned this visit. And Russia is the largest country of all who supported Beijing," he said.
According to the expert's forecast, Russian-Chinese relations will continue to improve. Beijing is increasingly realizing that it will be difficult to negotiate with America on any issues. Therefore, closer contacts are developing with those partners who take an anti-American position.
"Bilateral relations are already at a fairly high level, China supports Russia on all issues, in particular, on Ukrainian. But due to fears of secondary US sanctions, the Chinese were rather reserved about the development of economic relations in some areas, for example, in banking, as well as in the export of electronic chips. But now China will show more enthusiasm – the Americans have greatly disappointed Beijing," Lukin added.
Andrey Ostrovsky, a member of the Russian Association of Sinologists of the Russian Academy of Sciences, agrees that the tone of the meeting between Lavrov and Wang Yi was different than usual. He recalled that similar events took place in the late nineties, when the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Congress, Newt Gingrich, who was then in opposition, visited Taiwan. "Pelosi's visit was aimed at splitting, at separating Taiwan from China by any means," Ostrovsky pointed out.
Nevertheless, the trade turnover between China and the United States amounted to $ 775 billion last year. China's trade volume with Russia is several times smaller – $ 147 billion. "As a result of Wang Yi's talks with Lavrov, the task has been set to reach a foreign trade volume of $ 200 billion by the end of the year," Ostrovsky said, recalling that the task had previously been set to achieve such an indicator by 2020. In order to develop economic ties with China, Moscow "should participate as much as possible in the One Belt, One Road initiative, which makes it possible to deploy infrastructure on Russian territory.
"Now the share of cross-border trade is small and makes up 15% of the total turnover. In order for the situation to change, it is necessary to build new bridges across the Amur. No less important will be the transition in mutual settlements to rubles and yuan, because now business in both countries is focused on receiving dollars. As the results of the first half of the year showed, Russia did not participate in the "One Belt, One Road" initiative at all, and without this it is difficult to develop trade and economic ties with China. To date, the development of such ties mainly consists in the supply of energy resources," the expert explains.
A meeting of foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries was held in the capital of Cambodia. It took place against the backdrop of a deepening split between Russia and the West and other countries, including Japan, which imposed tough economic sanctions against Moscow in connection with the special operation in Ukraine.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was also present at the ministerial meeting. It is noteworthy that Wang Yi and Sergey Lavrov left their seats during a speech by Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi. According to Lukin, the Japanese minister made unfounded criticism of China – and that is why he received such a reaction.
"The Americans have violated all possible agreements with China. In official statements, the Americans and the Japanese say that it is not necessary to limit Taiwan's relations with other countries, although both countries promised not to establish official relations with Taiwan back in the 70s, when they established diplomatic relations with China. Therefore, it is natural that the Chinese could not stand it and left, and Lavrov decided to support China, which is quite consistent with the Russian position. Since the formation of the PRC in 1949, the Soviet Union, and then Russia, have always maintained the position that Taiwan is part of China and the relationship between the mainland and Taiwan is an internal Chinese issue, and no one can interfere in it," explained the scientific director of the Institute of China and Modern Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
We should add that Chinese Ambassador to France Lu Shae also spoke with harsh anti-American rhetoric, saying that the "black hand" of the United States is behind the Ukrainian and Taiwanese crisis,
who "want to add fuel to the fire in the Taiwan Strait in order to create another crisis besides the Ukrainian one."
According to him, Washington is concerned about the loss of its influence in the world – more and more developing countries "disagree" with the West in assessing the Ukrainian crisis and do not take part in sanctions against Russia.
In turn, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang said at a meeting with representatives of the White House that Pelosi's visit to Taiwan "seriously undermined" stability in Asia and relations between the two countries, so Washington should bear "full responsibility" for such developments.
According to the Chinese side, "the cause, essence and consequences of this incident are extremely clear." The embassy recalled that over 160 countries and international organizations criticized Pelosi and reaffirmed their commitment to the "one China" principle, as well as that "it is the United States that is the violator of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the region."
Andrey Rezchikov
