Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng: Sino-Russian relations are not capped and are constantly climbing to new heights

According to the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on February 5, president Xi Jinping held talks with Russian President Putin, who visited China and attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, on February 4, 2022. After the talks, Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng was interviewed by the media to introduce the results of the talks.

Le Yucheng said that the current Meeting of Heads of State between China and Russia was very successful. There is a good tradition between China and Russia that no matter who does a happy event, the other party will come to the door to congratulate and celebrate the grand event. In 2014, President Xi Jinping was invited by President Putin to Russia to attend the opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics, when the two prime ministers agreed to "reunite in Beijing in 2022." This time, President Putin came as promised to congratulate President Xi Jinping on the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics and the traditional Chinese New Year festival, and the two heads of state realized the "Winter Olympic Treaty" and "New Year Meeting" spanning eight years, continuing another good story of the diplomacy of the Chinese and Russian heads of state. Looking back at recent years, President Xi Jinping has met with President Putin 38 times, and has made more than 100 telephone calls and exchanges of letters and telegrams, which are unique among the leaders of major countries in terms of the number of exchanges, the depth, breadth and temperature of exchanges. From today's meeting, what we have seen is the growing personal friendship between the two heads of state, which is getting stronger and deeper, and it is also their leadership style of planning and laying out the layout and doing their own work for the development of Sino-Russian relations in the new era.

Le Yucheng said that today the Heads of State of China and Russia achieved their first offline meeting in more than two years, which was rich in content and fruitful. President Xi Jinping and President Putin had an in-depth and full exchange of views on China-Russia relations and a series of major issues related to global development and stability in a warm and friendly atmosphere, and planned a blueprint for China-Russia relations under the new historical conditions. The two sides firmly support each other in safeguarding their core interests, and agree to give full play to the political advantages of bilateral relations and promote all-round pragmatic cooperation to achieve more results. The two heads of state issued the "Joint Statement of China and Russia on International Relations and Global Sustainable Development in the New Era", which focused on expounding the common positions of China and Russia in the concepts of democracy, development, security and order, which will have an important and far-reaching impact on improving the global governance system in the new situation. The statement became the most important political outcome of the meeting. The two countries signed nearly 20 cooperation documents covering the fields of economy, trade, investment, energy, and sports within the framework of this visit, laying a solid foundation for further deepening and solidifying bilateral pragmatic cooperation. The Far East Natural Gas Supply and Marketing Agreement signed by the two enterprises has become another major landmark cooperation in the energy field after the Eastern Route natural gas pipeline, providing a new guarantee for the mainland to achieve the dual carbon target.

Le Yucheng said that the express train of Sino-Russian relations is always on the road, there is no terminal station, only gas station. In promoting pragmatic cooperation, China and Russia have not yet talked about it and acted resolutely, but also high-energy and high-efficiency actions. Bilateral trade exceeded $140 billion last year, an increase of more than 35 percent, and hit a record high. The two countries have formulated a roadmap for the high-quality development of trade in goods and services, adding a new hand to achieve the goal set by the two heads of state to exceed $200 billion in bilateral trade volume by 2024. The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding on promoting investment cooperation in the field of sustainable development. This is a vivid embodiment of President Xi Jinping's "two mountains" concept in the pragmatic cooperation between China and Russia, indicating that the development concepts of the two sides are highly compatible and both are committed to achieving high-quality economic development. In the face of the profound and complex evolution of the international situation, President Xi Jinping stressed that China and Russia should unswervingly deepen back-to-back strategic coordination and shoulder to shoulder safeguard international fairness and justice. President Putin stressed that the strategic significance of Russian-Chinese relations is unprecedentedly prominent, and the Russian side firmly supports China's legitimate position of safeguarding its core interests, and is willing to further strengthen strategic communication and cooperation with China and continue to deepen cooperation in various fields. During the talks, the two heads of state reiterated that any attempt to harm the interests of China and Russia and to alienate Sino-Russian relations is doomed to failure. The two heads of state also exchanged in-depth views on international and regional hotspot issues of common concern, and agreed to continue to practice true multilateralism, take pragmatic actions to implement global development initiatives, show great power deeds on issues that the international community is anxious to wait for, such as fighting the epidemic, boosting the economy, and responding to climate change, and promote the construction of a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind.

Le Yucheng said that the two heads of state also officially announced the launch of the Sino-Russian Sports Exchange Year during the talks. The opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics and the launch of the National Year with the theme of sports exchanges between the two countries have an extraordinary meaning. This is already the eighth national theme year jointly organized by the two countries, which will create a new realm of communication between the two peoples. Under the framework of the Year of Sports Exchange, the two sides will hold more than 550 sports exchange activities. It is foreseeable that in the next two years, sports will become the most active element in Sino-Russian people-to-people exchanges, and sportsmanship will become the most distinctive symbol of the sustained and healthy development of Sino-Russian relations.

Le Yucheng said that as President Xi Jinping said, the "New Year meeting" of the two heads of state will surely inject more vitality into China-Russia relations. Tonight, the much-anticipated Beijing Winter Olympic Games is about to open, and we hope and believe that athletes from all over the world, including China and Russia, will be able to work the beijing Winter Olympic Games, compete in style, and achieve better results!

Source: Observer Network