Closer Look: Putin's Latest State Visit Highlights Mutual Interests with China

(Beijing) - China and Russia signed three joint declarations on global affairs and cyber sovereignty issues during a 24-hour whirlwind visit to China by Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 25.

In their joint declaration on strengthening global strategic stability, both countries also launched a subtle but noticeable attack on the United States and NATO over their development of precision weaponry that China and Russia warned could trigger a new arms race.

Ahead of his latest state visit to China, Putin said in an interview with China's official Xinhua News Agency that Russia and China regarded each other as close allies.

Such assurances over China-Russia ties in recent years have led some analysts to point to a shift in international geopolitics: China and Russia are moving increasingly closer even as the European Union disintegrates with crises such as last week's Brexit.

From a historic perspective, such an interpretation is hard to substantiate. Instead, Putin's visit this time actually continues a warming of bilateral relations over the past 20 years.

The two nations signed the China-Russia Treaty on Good-neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation 2001, in which Sino-Russia ties were specifically defined as "a new type of relationship of non-alignment, non-confrontation and not targeting a third party."

The two countries also established the China-Russia strategic partnership of coordination in 1996, and the partnership was upgraded to a comprehensive one in 2011.

Both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin reaffirmed a commitment to deepening their partnership during the June 25 meeting in Beijing, the latest of more than 10 summits between the two heads of state since 2013.

Xi chose Russia as his first country to visit after taking over as Chinese president in 2013. He was invited to sit next to Putin during the Moscow Victory Day Parade in May 2015, an event to mark the 70th anniversary of the Allies' victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two. In a reciprocal gesture, Putin was also among the heads of state attending a similar parade staged in Beijing in September last year to celebrate the 70th anniversary of China's victory against Japanese aggression and the end of World War Two.

Frequent interaction with China, the world's second largest economy, represents a major victory in Russian diplomacy at a time when Russia is fighting off hostility from the United States and European Union over its policies towards Ukraine, according to some international relations analysts in Europe.

Russia has been reeling from a slump in commodity prices on the international market and sanctions imposed by some western countries over its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine two years ago.

That has led some western think-tanks to conclude that Russia needs China more than vice versa, since the Chinese economy is four times the size of Russia's.

In fact, China and Russia are tied together by many shared interests in the face of unprecedented clout wielded by the U.S. as the world's only superpower.

China and Russia have supported each other in recent years over issues linked to the crisis in Syria and cybersecurity. The two have also become actively involved in international affairs via BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organization initiatives aimed at fostering new international orders.

Economically, Russia also needs Chinese investment to counter setbacks it has suffered from ongoing U.S. and EU sanctions. That works well also for China, which wants to import oil and natural gas from Russia. China agreed in May 2014 to buy natural gas worth US$400 billion from Russia over the next 30 years, the biggest trade deal Russia has ever signed with another country.

During Putin's latest visit to China, the two countries signed more than 30 agreements aimed at consolidating cooperation. That included a deal to jointly construct a 770-kilometer high-speed rail line between Moscow and the Russia city of Kazan.

However trade is far from a cornerstone of China-Russia relations as it has been in China-U.S. ties. Bilateral trade with Russia has hovered around US$100 billion a year in recent years, or 2.5 percent of China's international trade. Two-way trade actually dropped by 28 percent year-on-year to US$68 billion in 2015. On the other hand, trade with the United States, despite frictions, continues to grow moderately to nearly US$558.4 billion last year.

So Putin's visit to China has greater political implications than economic benefits for both countries.

In their joint declaration on the development of cyberspace, both China and Russia have called for recognition of national sovereignty in the cyber realm. They have also expressed opposition to attempts by certain countries to interfere in the national affairs of other nations linked to race, ethnic minority groups and religion.

In addition to offering veiled criticism of new arms development by the United States and NATO, the China-Russia joint declaration also offers mutual support for China in its territorial dispute with the Philippines in the South China Sea, and for Russia as it suffers hardship as a result of sanctions imposed by the U.S. and EU.

Many analysts are skeptical of China-Russia ties due to frequent twists in bilateral relations in history. They might be right. But the warming of China-Russia ties in recent years comes as both countries find their shared interests, which are the key to any international relations, particularly when it comes to two major countries in the world.

(Rewritten by Li Rongde)