Liu Feng: Sino-Russian cooperation can add more maritime dimensions

Source: Global Times

In the face of the current complex international situation and the new crown epidemic, the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination between China and Russia in the new era has continued to improve, and the strategic cooperation between China and Russia has shown a development concept of "no end, no forbidden area, no upper limit". The existing cooperation between China and Russia in the maritime field is aimed at the construction of a national maritime power, with the development of marine undertakings and the defensive protection of national maritime security as the basic criterion, and does not seek maritime hegemony or target third parties. However, Western countries continue to play up the maritime threats of China and Russia, and continue to expand the implementation of "control of China" and "control of Russia" measures, and the recently established Australian-British-American Trilateral Security Alliance (AUKUS) is the latest example. In the face of growing pressure from the oceans, China and Russia should vigorously strengthen cooperation in the maritime dimension under the framework of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination in the new era.

Flags of China and Russia.

The maritime dimension is a natural extension of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination. The comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination has maintained the relations between China and Russia, two countries in the same Eurasia, at the best level in history. The Sino-Russian Joint Statement on Developing a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Coordination in the New Era points out that the objectives and directions of the future comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination between the two countries include: watching out for each other, giving each other firmer and more powerful strategic support, supporting each other to follow their own development path and safeguarding their core interests, and ensuring the respective security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the two countries; deep integration, close coordination and strategic coordination on the docking of national development strategies... At present, "strengthening the sea" has become one of the focal points of the development of China and Russia, and realizing more strategic cooperation in the maritime dimension of bilateral relations is a natural extension of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination.

China-Russia comprehensive strategic coordination in the maritime dimension will help break through the dilemma of dual security threats on land and sea between the two countries. Historical practice shows that in the process of transitioning to the sea, land-sea composite countries are subjected to different degrees of dual security threats on land and sea, showing the "double vulnerability of land-sea composite countries", and such countries must face and solve this dilemma. In order to curb the construction of maritime powers between China and Russia, the United States and Western countries have joined hands with their respective maritime neighbors of China and Russia to build "Russia-making" and "central" alliances at sea, such as in the Black Sea region against Russia, in the Arctic Ocean and the Pacific region against China and Russia. While ensuring the security of each other's land frontiers, the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination can basically ensure the formation of their own stable land environment and provide rear security guarantees for the two countries to "make the sea map stronger"; at the same time, the strategic cooperation between China and Russia in the economic, environmental protection, scientific and technological, military and other fields in the maritime dimension can effectively curb the strategic encirclement of existing maritime powers, and then solve the "dilemma" dilemma of land and sea complex countries.

China-Russia comprehensive strategic cooperation in the maritime dimension will help to resolve the dispersion of the two-way allocation of resources, land and sea. China and Russia are in a critical stage of rise and development, and as a land-sea composite country, they are facing the negative impact of the optimization and integration of land and sea resources and the avoidance of decentralized allocation of resources. The comprehensive strategic cooperation between the two countries in the maritime dimension can give full play to their respective comparative advantages and form a mutually beneficial and win-win development situation, so as to rationally coordinate their land and sea resources and effectively resolve the dispersion of the two-way allocation of resources, land and sea.

Specifically, China and Russia can continue to deepen maritime cooperation at both the bilateral and international levels. At the bilateral level, China and Russia can carry out in-depth exchanges and cooperation in the four fields of marine economy, marine science and technology, marine ecology and environment, and maritime military power. The blue economy is the most potential growth point for the two countries' own development and bilateral economic cooperation, marine science and technology cooperation is the key to improving the quality of Sino-Russian maritime cooperation, marine ecology and environmental protection determine the development of China-Russia marine undertakings and the sustainability of marine cooperation, and strengthening joint maritime exercises and military technical cooperation is the guarantee for Sino-Russian maritime security. At the international level, China and Russia can build a continuous marine development space from the Pacific Ocean in the east, through the Arctic Ocean in the north and the Atlantic Ocean in the west through maritime strategic cooperation and docking; with the help of mechanisms such as permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, timely communication and consultation on global issues such as climate change, marine environment governance and the construction of the marine legal system can be used to jointly safeguard the international maritime order and enhance the right to speak on marine issues; and consider cooperating in the development, utilization and protection of the world's marine resources It can also cooperate in dealing with various alliance mechanisms for existing maritime powers and their allies to encircle the development of China-Russia maritime undertakings and the construction of maritime powers. (The writer is an associate researcher at the Institute of National and Regional Studies, Tianjin University of Foreign Chinese)