China-Russia Strategic Coordination Shapes a New-type International Relationship

By Wang Jiabo,Guangming Daily Reporter

Special introduction:At the beginning of the new year,Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Putin exchanged New Year's greetings to each other,expressing the desire and confidence of both sides to continuously strengthen mutual trust and deepen cooperation in 2018,which are widely concerned by Russian media.

In a new year's message,Chinese President Xi Jinping said that in the new year,I would like to continue to work with you to further consolidate the political and strategic mutual trust between China and Russia,expand the practical cooperation all-dimensionally between China and Russia,promote China-Russia international strategic cooperation and jointly lead the development of relations between China and Russia to bear bumper harvest. The activities of cooperation and exchange between localities of China and Russia,which will be held in 2018 and 2019,will certainly comprehensively expand and deepen the local exchanges between the two countries,and make the concept of friendship for generations to come and common revitalization of China and Russia deeper into the hearts of the people.

In the new year's message to Chinese President XiJinping,President Putin pointed out that Russia-China relations achieved good results in the past year.Russia will continue to cooperate with China to promote mutual trust and the development of a comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.Putin pointed out in his congratulatory telegram that the trade volume between Russia and China greatly increased,and the exchanges in science,technology,culture and humanities have developed rapidly.The effective cooperation between Russia and China in global affairs has continuously made important contributions to the resolution of major international hots pot issues.

The Far Eastern cooperation is very much expected

In the past year,China-Russia relations developed by leaps and bounds.As Russian President Putin commented on the relations between Russia and China last month at his annual press conference that Russia has a national consensus on the development of relations with China,and no matter what the election(2018 presidential election)result is,China and Russia will be strategic partners in the future long-term historical stages.Putin's statement is not only the most authoritative summary of Russia-China relations in recent years,but also the assertion of confidence in the future direction of Sino-Russian relations.

From the long story before the new year's eve by the Russian Sputnik news agency,we can see that the Russian personages from all walks of life in political,economic,cultural and other fields are full of expectations on the relationship between Russia and China in the new year.The report said that the continuous growth of trade volume between Russia and China,the signing of the docking agreement between the Eurasian Economic Union and China’s Belt and Road,China's investment in the Far East and the strengthening of cooperation between the two countries in the process of solving international problems will be events worth expecting in the Russia-China relations in 2018.

Russian media believe that the comprehensive strategic coordinate partnership between Russia and China is the most strategic and practical concept,and the relations between the two countries are developing in an all-round way.In 2018,Russia and China will maintain highly consistent positions on major globalissues and jointly respond to challenges on the international stage.

Russian media pointed out that Russia is looking forward to strengthening cooperation between Russia and China in the process of economic development in the Far East of Russia.Alexei Maslov,a famous Russian expert on China,said that Far Eastern cooperation could be the driving force for the development of Sino-Russian economic and trade relations in 2018.Statistics released by the Chinese Customs show that in the first 11 months of 2017,the volume of trade between China and Russia increased by 21.8%over the previous year,reaching US$76.06 billion.There is a reason for Russia to expect the two sides to increase the steady growth of bilateral trade in 2018 with the cooperation of the Far East,and promote structural changes in economic and trade relations between the two sides.

Galushka,the Minister of the Department for Russian Far East Development,recently told the media that the economic and trade relations between Russia and China have developed steadily."The scale of the joint projects between the two sides is continuously expanding,first of all reflected in the field of cross-border infrastructure conxtruction.For example,the two bridges of friendship across Heilongjiang(Amur River)river is being actively built,namely,the Heihe bridge and the Tongjiang bridge.

Russian media believe that the Far East will become a new starting point for pragmatic cooperation between Russia and China.The construction of Binhai 1 and Binhai 2 International Traffic Corridor projects Russia and China actively participate in is also steadily advancing.The two sides have the same goals and are willing to work together,and to make full use of the economic development advantages of the two countries,to further tap the potential for cooperation between the two sides,to transform the high level of China-Russia comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership into more practical cooperation results,to continuously enrich the connotation of China-Russia relations,and to benefit the two countries and the peoples of the two countries.

The Russians from all walks of life have agreed that the Eurasian Economic Union docking with the Belt and the Road are the most important event of the Russian-China relations in 2018.The Russian side said that the Eurasian Economic Union and the Belt and Road Initiative economic partnership agreement is ready to be signed in 2018.Maslov pointed out that this is the most anticipated event,and the agreement needs to be improved in terms of its actual contents.Russian experts believe that the Belt and the Road Initiative is not a regional integration program,but a global concept that covers all regions of the world.The Russian side expects this concept to unite Russia and China in the fields of high technology,transportation, infrastructure,agricultural production and financial investment.

The Russian tourism industry believes that the Russian tourism industry is looking forward to the revision of the 2018 group tour visa exemption agreement due to the current conditions.The minimum number of Chinese groups to Russia will be reduced to 3,and the stay in Russia can be extended to 21 days.In recent years,the increase of tourist flow from China has injected vitality into the development of Russian tourism.The Russian tourism department hopes that the electronic visa system will become an important measure to attract Chinese tourists to Russia in the new year.

Working together to build a community with a shared future for mankind

China and Russia are important neighbors with a common border of more than 4300 kilometers.The trend of Sino-Russian relations is of great importance to the security and development of the two countries,and has far-reaching significance for global strategic stability,political security and economic development.In fact,China and Russia are each other's largest neighbor and need to rely on each other."Friendship for generations to come and never be an adversary to each other"is most consistent with the strategic interests of the two countries.Mutual strategic in-depth and strategic support are most consistent with the strategic needs of the two countries.In this sense,China and Russia can only be friends,not enemy to each other.The Sino-Russian relations can only go forward in the direction of friendship,cooperation and common development,and can only chose a model for building a community with a shared future for mankind.

China and Russia choose to be close to each other, which is the necessity of historical development.As two world-class countries with similar strategic environments and similar strategic needs,China and Russia need mutual support and common development.Facing the unbalanced international pattern of the long-domination by Western countries,China and Russia need to join hands in the process of building a new international order,and promote the development of the international political system in the direction of democracy and pluralism.China and Russia are committed to promoting the multi-polarization of the world pattern, the democratization of international relations and the diversity of world civilizations,advocate the establishment of a fair and rational international political and economic order,are opposed to unilateralism and hegemonism,maintain the international security mechanism centered on the United Nations and the international security norms with non-interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state at the core.There are similar prepositions and more and more common language between China and Russia on issues such as maintaining the unity of national sovereignty,opposing the abuse of sanctions and force as well as anti-missile, counter-terrorism, and opposing NATO's Eastward expansion.

China and Russia share the same political concept in establishing new-type state relations.The Sino-Russian relations are becoming a typical model for establishing between two countries'full sovereign equality,mutual respect,mutual benefit and mutual development.China and Russia have complementary advantages in factors of social development.Russia is more advanced in military,aerospace,aviation and materials technology areas.While China is more advanced in light industry,electronics and communications technology,and the two countries can form a"development partnership for modernization".Russia is rich in natural resources while China has huge demand for resources.Russia's energy advantages can help assure China's energy security.

As Li Hui,Chinese Ambassador to Russia,said that the 19th National Congress of the CPC summed up the new achievements made in the past five years to comprehensively promote the major country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics and made it clear that the major country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics in a new era should promote the construction of a new international relationship featured by mutual respect,fairness and justice,cooperation and win-win outcome,and the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind as the mission.The comprehensive strategic coordinate partnership between China and Russia occupies a special position in the major country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics,which is an important embodiment of the practice of carrying out Xi Jinping thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics in a new era.Guided by the strategy of the heads of state of the two countries as well as XiJinping Thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics,China-Russia comprehensive strategic coordinate partnership will move forward with more solid,confident and steady steps.

The past year is a year that China-Russia comprehensive strategic coordinate partnership continues to operate at a high level,and is also a year of fruitful results in practical cooperation between the two countries.Bilateral exchange mechanisms in various fields have been continuously consolidated,and the foundation for the development of bilateral relations has been deepened,more productive and consolidated.As Russian dignitaries in all walks of life,Li Hui also believes that"Far East cooperation"will become a highlight of Sino-Russian relations in 2018.China and Russia are the largest neighbors to each other,their border lines are mostly located in the Northeast of China and the Far East of Russia,where the people in the adjacent areas share the same sky and drink from the same river together,and to carry out cooperation has the advantages of rear opportunities,favorable terrain and friendly people. At the moment, the Sino-Russian development cooperation in the Far East is in the stage of vigorous growth.China is the largest importing source,second major export destinations and major source of foreign capital for the Russian Far East,and more and more Chinese enterprises have settled into the leapfrog development zone and the free port of the Russian Far East.We should make full use of the inter-governmental and local cooperation mechanisms between the two countries,strengthen the communication and coordination of policies and regulations,create a good business environment,improve the construction of the cross-border infrastructure, connect the interregional traffic chain,provide new kinetic energy for the economic and trade cooperation between the two countries;mobilize the enthusiasm of the small and medium-sized enterprises and maintain close contacts of the bilateral personnel.We believe that under the joint efforts of the two governments and the unremitting efforts of the two countries’enterprises,the cooperation between China and Russia in the Far East is bound to take a new step.