Russia-China Strategic Coordination Exemplifies Foreign Relations of the Future
May 26, 2021 (EIRNS)—While NATO-serving pundits merrily scribble proposals for how to turn China and Russia against each other to benefit their geopolitical order (case in point: the German Marshall Fund’s Isaac Stone Fish silly piece in today’s Washington Post), Russian and Chinese officials hold up the growing strength of their relationship as an example for others that nations relating to each other not on the basis of power, but on mutual benefit, forms the strongest bonds.
Senior Chinese diplomat and CPC official Yang Jiechi arrived in Moscow on May 24, to co-chair the 16th round of Russian-Chinese consultations on strategic stability yesterday with Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev. While in Moscow, he spoke by phone with President Putin, delivering and receiving messages between President Xi Jinping and Putin, and “touching upon several pressing issues on the international agenda,” the Kremlin reported.
Yang described Russian-Chinese relations to Putin as “the perfect example of a new type of mutually beneficial international relationship,” which helps overcome global challenges, calling the “momentum” and “positive energy” of the Chinese-Russian comprehensive strategic partnership key for “global stability amid worldwide changes,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry read-out on the call emphasized, TASS reports.
Chinese semi-official daily Global Times took up this theme in its editorial today, “China-Russia Ties Assure Global Strategic Balance.” The daily recommended the West stop speculating about what “tool with special effects” it can devise to split apart the two nations. The efforts of the U.S. and its allies to “suppress” both nations have brought them closer together, “and the heavier the pressure, the more steadfast the support from the other country will be.” More than this, however, is involved, the editors caution.
“The China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era is way much stronger than such temporary geopolitical dynamics. It has transformed into the cornerstone of both countries’ national strategies after 20 years of continuous accumulation and consolidation.... The strategic coordination between the two countries has penetrated into all aspects of international politics.”
Unlike Western alliances held together by waning U.S. power, “the greatest value of China-Russia relations is equality and mutual benefit. Being partners but not pursuing alignment will create not only flexibility, but also resilience. Such values and principles will prove to be more vital than the hegemonic alliance system....
“The comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination between China and Russia for a new era not only belongs to the two countries, but also all human beings. The U.S.’ aggressive alliances with its main allies are out of step with the 21st-century Zeitgeist. And they need to reflect on themselves,” Global Times concludes.
