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News > World

Russia's Putin and China's Xi Discuss Economic Cooperation, 'Multi-polar World'

  • Russian President Vladmir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping exchanged economic and geopolitical strategy at this week's visit.

    Russian President Vladmir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping exchanged economic and geopolitical strategy at this week's visit. | Photo: AFP

Published 5 July 2017
Opinion

The leaders discussed efforts to align their economic strategies, as well as "progress toward a multi-polar world" with "greater democracy in international relations."

Chinese-Russian relations and strategic cooperation is the best it has been in history, Chinese President Xi Jinping said during his official state visit to Russia this week.

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Both leaders emphasized support for each other's economic and political interests, agreeing to work on aligning strategies both economically and geopolitically, forging unity between the China-led Belt and Road initiative, and the Russian Eurasian Economic Union.

“Our two sides are working hard to align our development strategies. President Putin and I have reached an important agreement to strengthen the complementarity of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Eurasian Economic Union. Bilateral cooperation in energy, trade, investment, high-tech, finance, infrastructure and agriculture is growing rapidly and increasingly geared toward modernization and innovation in science and technology,” President Xi said.

“One needs good partners to walk with, and good neighbors to live with,” Xi noted in a speech when he arrived in Russia.

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Among the projects discussed was developing a trade route through the Northern Sea, a project they dubbed the “silk road on ice.”

Xi praised Putin for being the first world leader to accept his invitation to the Belt and Road initiative forum. The Belt and Road initiative seeks to construct and improve global trade infrastructure bringing together economies in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and even Latin America, and forge improved economic relations between countries.

In addition to shared economic interests, the two countries also share similar geopolitical projects toward “multipolarity,” a term referring to the shift away from a world solely dominated by western powers they said.

“We both support progress toward a multi-polar world and greater democracy in international relations,” Xi said.

Xi also praised Russia's continued role in Syria, which he emphasized was at the behest of the Syrian government. Both China and Russia, he said, maintain that the conflict in Syria must be resolved by the Syrian people, and that sovereignty and political solutions must be promoted.

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