Xi's fruitful Russia visit paves the way for regional prosperity

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Editor's Note: Vladimir Petrovskiy is a senior research fellow at the Far East Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences. The article reflects the author's opinion, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Chinese President Xi Jinping's just-concluded visit to Russia can be assessed both in terms of political symbolism and the practical results achieved. The symbolism of the visit primarily lies in the fact that they are held at the 70th anniversary of Russian-Chinese diplomatic relations.

President Xi said during his stay in Russia that a stronger China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination is of great importance to maintaining the interests of the two countries and their peoples, and to global peace, stability and prosperity.

The two countries announced upgrading their bilateral relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era. This relationship will be formed based on mutual strategic support and common interests. It will also be a boon for the formation of a new international order and the strengthening of international security.

China and Russia signed a joint statement to strengthen contemporary global strategic stability, which reflects their common vision on the international arms control and disarmament machinery.

In the main joint document signed at the end of the visit, the Russian side expressed its support for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and the Chinese side voiced support for the promotion of BRI integration within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

Russian President Vladimir Putin during the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) in Beijing, April 26, 2019. /VCG Photo‍

Russia and China are stepping up concerted efforts on the integration of the EAEU and the BRI. The Chinese side believed that the BRI and Russian President Vladimir Putin-advocated Greater Eurasian Partnership can be coordinated. The integration of the two will contribute to the bilateral and multilateral integration processes in the region. This is to the benefits of the people in Eurasia.

The concrete results of Xi's visit are not less impressive. Last year, China-Russia trade volume reached a record high of 108 billion U.S. dollars. About 30 joint investment projects worth 22 billion U.S. dollars are being implemented with the participation of Chinese investments.

Russia and China are striving to reach an intergovernmental agreement on expanding the use of rubles and yuan in bilateral trade, as well as on ensuring uninterrupted banking services for transactions in conditions of instability in global markets.

The Heihe-Blagoveshchensk road bridge, which is set to open to traffic later this year. /VCG Photo

The energy cooperation between the two countries is successful – the third phase of the Yamal LNG plant was launched a year ahead of time, and almost 30 percent of the share belongs to the Chinese side. And in another large-scale project of a similar scale – Arctic LNG-2 – for the first time the Russian side is entering the Chinese domestic liquefied natural gas market.

An impressive number of 27 agreements on cooperating in nuclear energy, agricultural production, aviation, space exploration, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and other high-tech industries were signed during Xi's visit. The two sides have agreed to hold the China-Russia year of scientific and technological innovation from 2020 to 2021.

As for the inter-regional cooperation, China and Russia pledged to strengthen cooperation along the Yangtze and Volga rivers, according to Xinhua reports. Local governments from the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the Volga Federal District have been cooperating for a long time on the issue.

It is worth noting that the priority of China-Russia bilateral cooperation is innovation, high technology, digital economy, and artificial intelligence. Most notably, against the backdrop of the U.S.' attempt to blacklist the Chinese company Huawei, a memorandum of understanding was signed between Russia's top mobile network provider MTS and Huawei.

Among all, the upgrade of the China-Russia relationship, which has gone through ups and downs, is one of the most outstanding achievements of Xi's visit. This has laid a solid basis for the two countries' pragmatic cooperation and will pave the way for them to consolidate their positions in the modern world.

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