“The friendship between the two states has no limits, there are no ‘forbidden’ areas of cooperation,” they declared, announcing plans for collaboration in a number of areas such as space, climate change, artificial intelligence and Internet control.
The agreement constitutes the most detailed and firm declaration of the determination of Russia and China to work together – and against the United States – to build a new international order, based on their own interpretations of human rights and democracy.
Suffused with ideological discourse, it was not clear whether it would immediately translate into increased tangible and practical cooperation – despite Putin’s much fanfare announcing a new gas deal with China on Friday – or whether it was intended to be more of a general statement of intent.
Jonathan Eyal of the London-based think tank RUSI said the statement marks a “frontal refutation” of the American and Western world view and the construction of a possible military alliance between Russia and China.
“It’s the most explicit articulation of the ‘make the world safe for dictatorship’ strategy,” he said. “It’s a historic point because they both feel hemmed in and feel that their time has come to put forth their worldview and aggressively promote it.”
The two countries have grown closer as both have come under pressure from the West on a range of issues, including their human rights commitments and Russia’s military buildup near Ukraine. The moment of the announcement was very symbolic, in an Olympic Games organized by China that the United States has subjected to a diplomatic boycott.
Each of them went much further than before, Eyal said, by explicitly endorsing the other on key issues of dispute with the United States and its allies:
– Russia expressed its support for China’s position that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and its opposition to any form of independence for the island.
– Moscow and Beijing also voiced opposition to the AUKUS alliance between Australia, the UK and the US, saying it increases the danger of an arms race in the region.
– China joined Russia in calling for an end to NATO expansion and supported its demand for security guarantees from the West, issues that are at the heart of Moscow’s confrontation with Washington and its allies over Ukraine.
The two countries expressed concern about “advancing US plans to develop a global missile defense and deploy its elements in various regions of the world, along with increasing its high-precision non-nuclear weapons capability for disarmament strikes and other strategic goals”.
On the other hand, without naming Washington, they criticized the attempts of “certain states” to establish world hegemony, intensify confrontation and impose their own norms of democracy.
By Andrew Osborn and Mark Trevelyan of Reuters
Source: Ambito
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