FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

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Global Times Journalist: Russia Could Be Bridge Between East and West

Oct. 7, 2018 (EIRNS)—Global Times reporter Sun Xiaobo made his first trip to Russia in September, and he reports in an op-ed posted today, that contrary to what he expected, when he walked the streets of Moscow he found a country inextricably connected to the West. Yet, in his various interviews and discussions, he found a lot of ambivalence and even pessimism among Russians about Russia’s relations with the West.

“In fact, Russians I met during my stay in Moscow all seem to hold little hope for a thaw in Russia’s relations with the West. It would mean a daunting task for the two to bury the hatchet,”

he writes. He suggests that trust between Russia and Asia might need a little work, too,

“But since the 21st century is projected as the Asian Century, working more with emerging Asian countries, China in particular, can be a wise choice.”

He writes that Russia and China already have cooperative relations in a wide variety of fields, and that the two countries have a goal of $200 billion in trade by 2020. Furthermore, Xi Jinping attended the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok in September for the first time, and in May, China signed an agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) on cooperation with the Belt and Road Initiative. “It seems to be a right track to stay on,” Sun writes.

“Russia will continue to be an independent and important pole in the world. Its past struggle with where to proceed may not recur, but the country will probably strengthen its cooperation with Asian nations and seek to improve its Western ties, as its idea of new Eurasianism shows,”

Sun concludes. “It has to play the role of a bridge,” he says, and although Sun didn’t say, as Leibniz wrote.