Talks signal shared intent to uphold rules-based global system: China Daily editorial

Thursday marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, and July 16 is the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Good-neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation between China and Russia. The discussions between the leaders of the two countries at this special moment highlights their common will to push their comprehensive strategic partnership to a new height.

Comparing notes on a series of global and regional issues of common concern, the video conference between President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Monday has further deepened the strategic mutual trust between the two countries, and consolidated their shared determination to promote global development and safeguard world peace and stability.

While some big countries are attempting to hijack the global agenda, weaponize human rights and democracy, and backpedal on the achievements of global governance and economic globalization, close strategic coordination and cooperation between Beijing and Moscow are setting a good example of relations featuring high-level political mutual trust, close strategic coordination and win-win economic and trade cooperation, and helping to uphold the UN-centered rules that are the bedrock for the international order.

Rather than any need to counter the confrontational stance of Western countries, as some allege, it is their shared commitment to the UN-centered international system, multilateralism and economic globalization, as well as the strong complementarity between their economies, that has injected continuous vitality into Sino-Russian relations.

If interventionism, unilateralism and hegemony were to prevail, not only would the trend toward a fairer postwar order be brought to an abrupt halt, it would also undo the development achievements the world has made through multilateralism.

While the outbreak of the novel coronavirus has made exchanges between countries difficult, it has not prevented Sino-Russian relations from reaching their highest historical level, which is evidenced not only by the two leaders' frequent conversations by telephone and video links, but also the robust increase in the two countries' trade and economic cooperation, and the extending of the treaty which was due to expire this year.

Any countries hoping to sow discord between Beijing and Moscow are destined for disappointment, as the solidarity of the relationship between the two is based on a shared commitment to such basic principles as mutual respect, peaceful co-existence and equity.

The pragmatic cooperation between the two countries under various frameworks, including the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, has never targeted any third party, and will never do so in the future. What the two countries are trying to defend with other like-minded countries is the basic norms of international relations that concern the immediate interests of all countries.

It is to be hoped that the stable and healthy development of Sino-Russian relations will continue to serve the people of the two countries and those beyond.