Russia-China Foreign Policy Relations Stabilize World Affairs — Putin

According to the Russian leader, last year was very productive for the two states

© Gavriil Grigorov/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS

NOVO-OGARYOVO, January 21. /TASS/. Joint foreign policy collaboration by Moscow and Beijing plays an important stabilizing role in world affairs, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a video call conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

"I would like to thank you again for your support for Russia’s BRICS chairmanship. We are coordinating our steps on other multilateral platforms as well: the United Nations and its Security Council, the SCO, the G20, and APEC. We jointly press for building a fairer multipolar world order. We work to ensure indivisible security in the Eurasian space and in the world as a whole," Putin said.

"It is safe to say that foreign policy communication and joint work by Russia and China objectively play an important stabilizing role in international affairs," Putin stressed.

According to the Russian leader, last year was very productive for the two states.

"We widely celebrated the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations. During our visit to China in May, we launched a large-scale project of cross years of culture. Useful talks took place in July on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s summit in Astana," Putin said.

The Russian leader added that he was glad to meet with his counterpart at the BRICS summit in Kazan in October.

Russia-China video conferences

Putin and Xi Jinping have already communicated via an encrypted video conference call system. The conversation took place on December 20, 2022. It was the first for the two leaders since the Chinese president was re-elected as general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in October of the same year.

In general, video calls had been used in the Kremlin before. On December 7, 2021, there was a conversation with then-US President Joe Biden. According to Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, an encrypted video link was used for this purpose. It was established back in the period of constructive relations between Moscow and Washington. Although inactive, it was maintained operational all along. Peskov emphasized at the time that communication by video link was not fundamentally different from a telephone conversation or face-to-face encounter.