Russian Federation Council Welcomes New Silk Road at Russia-China Conference in Moscow

PRESS RELEASE

Russian Federation Council Welcomes New Silk Road at Russia-China Conference in Moscow

May 30, 2017 (EIRNS)—Russia-China cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative will accelerate the development of bilateral relations and lead to global changes in Eurasia, said a Russian Senate leader Monday. Valentina Matviyenko, President of the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian legislature, made remarks at the Third International Conference "Russia-China: Taking on a New Quality of Bilateral Relations," in Moscow.

"The modern world is going through difficult times ... we have only one way—to jointly build our future on the basis of justice, equality, respect for national sovereignty, norms of international law and UN principles,"

she said. This approach shared by Russia and China and supported by an increasing number of other countries represents a "solid foundation for mutual understanding and cooperation both in the international arena and in bilateral relations."

These annual two-day conferences, gathering high-level officials and thinktankers of both countries for in-depth discussions of all aspects of their relations, are organized by the Russian International Affairs Council and the Russia-China Friendship Society, with the support of both governments.

The description of this year’s conference, as compared to that of 2016, reflects the advances consolidated over the past year around the Belt and Road globally. The alignment of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) was high on the agenda in 2016, also, but the conference was tasked to discuss

"imbalances in the global economic system and Russia’s and China’s recent economic troubles [which] pose serious threats to the implementation of large-scale development projects and demand innovational approaches to the collaboration."

This year, the conference task was to "build on the results" of the ‘Belt and Road’ International Cooperation Forum in Beijing and the visit of the President of Russia to China in May.

Sessions range from the role of culture, education and science, to such subjects as "The Arctic as a Prospective Area of Russia-China Interaction," the "Economic Basis for Russia-China Partnership: New Points of Growth;" "Eurasia as a Region of Multilateral Partnership," and the like.