Russia and China signed 26 documents following a meeting between President Xi Jinping and his counterpart Vladimir Putin on Thursday (8) in the Kremlin. The agreements include mutual investment promotion and protection, bilateral cooperation between the two countries’ leading universities and a partnership involving the Russian Direct Investment Fund.
Xi Jinping will be in Russia from May 7 to 10 to attend Victory Day, the 80th anniversary of Soviet victory over Nazism in World War II. The foreign ministries of both countries signed a joint declaration on strengthening cooperation in support of international law, and set up a biosafety commission.
The two countries also created an action plan for joint film production, partnerships in communication with three Russian media outlets and M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University to establish partnerships with the China Media Group (CMG) and the main Chinese state newspapers.
Global strategic stability
After the meeting in the Kremlin, two joint statements were issued: one on deepening the comprehensive partnership and the other on “global strategic stability.” The second document states that “the plans and practical measures of individual nuclear states to deploy, outside their national territory, short-range land-based missiles with short flight times to a wide range of targets in the territories of other nuclear states” are of particular concern.
Still mentioning “nuclear-armed states” generically, the statement emphasizes that they need to “end differences through equal dialogue and mutually respectful consultations, build trust to avoid dangerous miscalculations, and refrain from actions that create strategic risks.” China and Russia also criticized US President Donald Trump’s recent proposal for a Golden Dome, an upgrade of the United States’ missile defense system, with a name reminiscent of Israel’s Iron Dome.
“The recently announced large-scale ‘Golden Dome for America’ program is deeply destabilizing in nature (…) It proposes an unlimited, global, deeply layered, multi-sphere missile defense system to protect against any missile threats.”
The text states that the initiative would mean “a complete and final refusal to recognize the inextricable link between strategic offensive and strategic defensive weapons, which is one of the central and fundamental principles of maintaining global strategic stability.”
Victory Day
“Eighty years ago, the Chinese and Russian peoples made immense sacrifices and won a great victory. Their fundamental contribution to world peace and human progress is a shining chapter in the annals of history,” said Xi Jinping in Moscow.
Xi recalled that this year China is also commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against the Japanese Aggression, as well as the Soviet Union’s Great Patriotic War and the World Anti-Fascist War, which will be celebrated today (9) as Victory Day.
The Chinese president said that “in the face of unilateralist counter-currents, intimidation and acts of power politics,” the two countries are working together “to assume the special responsibilities of leading countries and permanent members of the UN Security Council.”
He stressed that the two countries are defending “the correct historical perspective on World War II,” and promoting “an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization.”
Without mentioning the tariff crisis caused by Donald Trump’s administration, Xi said that China is ready to work with Russia to defend the global multilateral trading system and keep industrial and supply chains stable and uninterrupted.
With this, Xi Jinping has now visited Russia 11 times as president. He and Putin have met more than 40 times as heads of state.
*With information from TASS and Xinhua.
