China, Russia take aim at West unveiling new blueprint for ties

China and Russia on Wednesday unveiled a broad long-term blueprint for their deepening relations, pledging to work together to push back against the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy as well as attempts to “politicise” multilateral platforms.

China and Russia on Wednesday unveiled a broad long-term blueprint for their deepening relations, pledging to work together to push back against the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy as well as attempts to “politicise” multilateral platforms.

A joint statement, released in Mandarin and Russian, following Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow and talks with President Vladimir Putin, said both sides “firmly condemn the politicisation” of multilateral platforms and “attempts of certain countries to fill the agenda of multilateral platforms with unrelated issues and dilute the primary mission of the relevant mechanisms.”

This reference pointed to sharp divisions in the G20 ahead of this year’s summit to be hosted by India. China and Russia earlier this month opposed references to the Ukraine war leading to the failure of the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi to issue a collective statement. 

The lengthy joint statement also expressed “serious concern over NATO’s continued strengthening of military-security ties with Asia-Pacific countries” and said both sides “oppose the cobbling together of a closed and exclusive bloc structure in the Asia-Pacific region, creating bloc politics and camp confrontation”. Chinese officials have previously referred to the India-U.S.-Australia-Japan Quad as an “exclusive bloc”. The statement accused the U.S. of following “a Cold War mentality” and said its Indo-Pacific strategy “has a negative impact on peace and stability in the region.”

Instead, the joint statement said, China and Russia were “committed to building an equal, open and inclusive security system in the Asia-Pacific region that does not target third countries”, pointedly using the term “Asia-Pacific” and not Indo-Pacific.

Both Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin hailed the state of their relations following lengthy talks in Moscow. The Chinese leader once again referenced Beijing’s position paper on the Ukraine crisis, but the visit didn’t appear to suggest any major breakthrough in Chinese efforts to broker a peace in Ukraine, which Chinese media have highlighted in the wake of the recent landmark Saudi-Iran deal signed in Beijing. The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday didn’t comment on reports suggesting Mr. Xi would shortly hold a telephone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

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