It is worth noting that after Putin's visit to China, the foreign ministers of China and Russia will meet in a third country, and some things will be discussed further.
Russian President Putin's visit to China in the past two days can be said to be hot news of general concern to the international community, and the fruitful results of the Sino-Russian talks can be seen from the joint statement issued by China and Russia after the high-level meeting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin
In this 10,000-word joint statement, China and Russia can be said to have reached a consensus on all-round cooperation from culture to economy and from politics to security.
What is particularly noteworthy is that the two sides unanimously decided to deepen the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era, which means that China-Russia relations will once again reach a new level.
At the same time, China and Russia agreed that enhancing the influence of the BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is the next priority. In this regard, China and Russia have already begun to put into concrete action the consensus reached at the highest level of the two countries.
According to the news announced by mainland Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin at a regular press conference on May 16, mainland Foreign Minister Wang Yi will attend the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Foreign Ministers' Council and visit Kazakhstan and Tajikistan from May 18 to 21.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi
The meeting of the SCO Foreign Ministers' Council, which will be held in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, is itself a regular meeting of the SCO, and the unusual thing is that the interaction between China and Russia is too "frequent".
According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zakharova, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will also attend the meeting of the SCO Foreign Ministers' Council in Astana from May 20 to May 21, and hold a series of bilateral meetings during the meeting.
This includes bilateral meetings between China and Russia. In the past two days, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has been in China and is accompanying Russian President Vladimir Putin on an official state visit to China.
In other words, this means that the foreign ministers of China and Russia have just completed their meeting in China, and then they have turned around and gone to Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, to continue their bilateral meeting.
The SCO holds its annual summit
It is clearly unusual for such frequent high-level meetings between the two major powers.
From China's point of view, as a founding member of the SCO, it is only natural that it should pay close attention to the meeting of the SCO Foreign Ministers' Council, as it involves coordination and cooperation between China and the Central Asian countries on strategic issues such as economic, diplomatic and regional security.
To put it bluntly, this is related to the peace and stability of western China and even the entire Central Asian region, as well as the long-term layout of peace and stability along the Belt and Road Initiative, and we must attach great importance to it.
However, as far as Russia is concerned, as the rotating chair of the BRICS this year, Russia's current focus in multilateral diplomacy has always been on the BRICS, and now it is so active in meeting with the SCO member states, including China, within the framework of the SCO, which somewhat reflects Russia's somewhat anxious mentality.
Central Bank of Russia
This anxiety comes from the large-scale sanctions imposed by Europe and the United States on Russia. At present, Russia is actively seeking to use regional multilateral institutions such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS to break through the financial and economic blockade of the United States.
Specifically, before President Putin's visit to China, the Russian media had been saying that Russia hoped to solve the problem of illegal third-party sanctions on bilateral trade within the framework of the BRICS and the SCO through cooperation between China and Russia.
Since the end of last year, Europe and the United States have imposed several rounds of sanctions on Russia, not only directly sanctioning Russian enterprises and related economic entities, preventing Russian enterprises and banks from conducting cross-border settlements through the "SWIFT" banking system, but also adopting secondary sanctions against other third-party countries related to Russia.
In this context, although Russia has completely torn its face with Europe and the United States, and is not afraid of European and American sanctions, they also have to consider the problem of Russia's partners being "dragged down" by Russia.
International Funds Clearing System (SWIFT)
After all, in addition to trade with Russia, most countries also have to trade with other countries in the world, and many of these trades are settled in US dollars, using the "SWIFT" banking system dominated by Europe and the United States for cross-border trade settlement.
Once it is subject to secondary sanctions from the United States because of Russia's problems, it is forced to make a choice between Russia and the Western market.
And this choice, many times, is not good for Russia. Therefore, Russia is now eager to cooperate with China and push as soon as possible to get rid of the US dollar settlement and the dependence on the "SWIFT" banking system dominated by Europe and the United States within the framework of the BRICS and the SCO.
And for this to happen, the key lies in China. Because Russia's own economy and trade scale are not enough to support an alternative that completely gets rid of the dollar and does not rely on the "SWIFT" system. This is the root cause of Russia's current bilateral and even multilateral diplomacy with China.
Sino-Russian relations
From China's point of view, it is certainly a good thing to promote the RMB settlement system, including but not limited to the RMB cross-border payment system, that is, CIPS to be accepted by more countries.
But good things, sometimes you have to take your time, you can't rush. Taking RMB settlement as an example, in recent years, the share of RMB settlement in global trade settlement has been increasing rapidly.
It can be said that in recent years, there is no need for China to promote, many countries have taken the initiative to come to China to exchange renminbi and establish local currency settlement, the main reason is that the United States uses the hegemony of the dollar to act perversely in the world, forcing many countries to be afraid and start looking for alternatives.
For example, some Middle Eastern countries that used to have close relations with the United States have turned to China to seek cooperation, and some major oil-producing countries in the Middle East, represented by Saudi Arabia, have not only reached large-scale local currency swap agreements with China, but also actively signed up to join regional multilateral organizations such as BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
BRICS New Development Bank cooperation mechanism
Earlier last year, the Saudi cabinet approved a memorandum on becoming a dialogue partner of the SCO, and since January 1 this year, Saudi Arabia has officially become a member of the BRICS.
There are not a few countries like Saudi Arabia that are eager to participate in multilateral cooperation, and many countries are still holding applications and lining up to join the BRICS and SCO, which shows that with the continuous improvement of China's international influence, some multilateral cooperation organizations with China's participation are more attractive, and the majority of developing countries have more platforms to speak out, and the international pattern will be reshaped.