Relations between Russia-China are a sample of genuine interstate cooperation in the 21st century, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said following the video-call he had with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Wednesday in a culmination of the diplomatic year for Moscow and Beijing that are responding to West’s containment policy by continuing the rapprochement.
Listed among the topic discussed by Xi and Putin during the talks that were described as “highly positive”, were trade, international relations, as well as security issues.
Among the first things that the Kremlin has announced following the talks is that Russia and China will develop shared financial structures outside Western control to enable them to deepen economic ties that foreign states won’t be able to influence.
This comes as an apparent reaction to the reiterating warnings from the West to disconnect Moscow from the SWIFT financial system based in Brussels – that underpins the vast majority of international transactions- as a form of sanctions.
According to Putin’s foreign policy advisor, Yuri Ushakov, both Putin and Xi have advocated for increasing the share of national currencies in mutual settlements and expanding cooperation to provide investors in both countries with access to stock markets.
During the talks, special emphasis was put on the need to intensify the efforts to create an independent financial infrastructure to service trade operations between Russia and China that cannot be influenced by third countries.
The presidents have also expressed concerns regarding the United States’ activities towards reconfiguring the current situation in the Asia-Pacific region, blasting in the process the new trilateral pact, dubbed AUKUS, that the US, UK, and Australia signed in September.
In their opinion, AUKUS escalates tensions in the region and undermines the foundations of the nuclear nonproliferation regime since it envisages Canberra acquiring nuclear-powered submarines.
Be the first to comment