Moscow and Beijing should “lead the correct direction of global governance reform,” said Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Xi underlined that the development of the bilateral ties between China and Russia has become “a strategic choice made by both countries based on their own national and people’s fundamental interests.”
Xi added that the importance of developing ties within such multinational groups as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS.
The Chinese President was hosting Valentina Matvienko, the speaker of Russia’s upper chamber of parliament, on Monday.
Valentina Matvienko was visiting Beijing for talks.
The high-profile negotiations revolved around strengthening ties between the two nations, as well as their joint multinational projects.
“China is ready to continue to work with Russia to develop a new era of comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership that is mutually supportive, deeply integrated, pioneering and innovative, and mutually beneficial to help rejuvenate the two countries and promote a prosperous, stable, fair and just world,” Xi said during the meeting, which involved multiple senior officials from the two countries.
During the meeting, Matvienko relayed a “spoken message” from Russian President Vladimir Putin to Xi.
She said Russia-China ties have in recent years reached their highest-ever point and they will continue to improve even further. “This is the key role of the leaders of the two states. Such cooperation is in the best interests of our countries,” she said.
Speaking to reporters after the talks, Matvienko stated that Moscow can always rely on “a firm and reliable friendly shoulder in China,” hailing the country as a “very responsible serious state.”
“The main thing that I learned from all the meetings and conversations is that China will consistently and persistently continue cooperation with Russia, preserving the friendship that exists between our countries and peoples,” she said.
The Russian delegation, led by Matvienko, is set to remain in China until Wednesday.
West Pushes Neocolonial Agenda On World Stage, Says Lavrov
The U.S. and its allies are attempting to cling onto world hegemony against the tide of multipolar international order, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.
“We do not define the currents phase of international relations as a new Cold War,” Lavrov told the Indonesian outlet Kompas.
“The issue at hand is about something different, namely, the formation of a multipolar international order. This is an objective process. Everyone can see that new globally meaningful decision-making centers are growing stronger in Eurasia, the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.”
These countries and their associations are seeing success because they promote “values such as national interests, independence, sovereignty, cultural and civilizational identity and international cooperation,” in line with the global development trends, Lavrov explained.
Meanwhile, the U.S.-led “collective West” is trying to slow or reverse this process, the Russian diplomat said.
He said: “Their goal is not to strengthen global security or engage in joint development, but to maintain their hegemony in international affairs and to keep pursuing their neocolonial agenda, or in simpler terms, to continue to address their own problems at the expense of others, as they are accustomed to doing.”
Lavrov pointed to economic sanctions imposed by Western countries against Russia in response to its military operation in Ukraine, as well as “overall selfish foreign policy,” which he said had undermined global food and energy security and made life difficult for developing countries.
The Ukraine conflict will continue “until the West gives up its plan to preserve its domination and overcome its obsessive desire to inflict on Russia a strategic defeat at the hands of its Kiev puppets,” Lavrov added, noting that there are no signs of that happening at this time.
Instead, he said, “the Americans and their vassals continue feverishly pumping Ukraine full of arms and pushing Vladimir Zelensky to continue hostilities,”
Lavrov said it is telling that the West is ignoring the initiatives of the developing nations, for instance, the proposals by Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
“During his visit to Moscow on June 30, 2022, he spoke about the need for ceasefire, humanitarian assistance and food security and expressed willingness to ‘develop communication’ between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine,” the minister said. On June 3 of this year, Defence Minister of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto also spoke about settlement of the crisis in Ukraine. But Kiev instantly rejected his idea by saying that it needed no mediators right now.”
Lavrov said the so-called “peace formula” suggested by Zelensky is a symptom of the aggressive mood of Kiev and its external patrons.
“They are trying to push it through as the only possible option for settlement. In effect, it consists of a package of ultimatums for Russia: a demand to stage a trial of its military-political leadership and take off its material assets in the form of reparations. To legitimize these demands that have nothing to do with seeking a real settlement, they are trying to convene some ‘peace summit’ in the near future, to which they are inviting developing nations. I am sure the Indonesians understand perfectly well the harmful motive behind these plans and will not yield to the false rhetoric of those that stand for fighting to the last Ukrainian,” he said.
NATO’s Military Aid To Ukraine Brings World War Three Closer, Says Medvedev
A Reuters report said on July 12, 2023:
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia’s powerful Security Council chaired by President Vladimir Putin, said late on Tuesday that the increase in military assistance to Ukraine by the NATO alliance brings World War Three closer.
Commenting on the first day of the summit of the U.S.-led alliance in Lithuania, where a number of countries pledged more weaponry and financial support, Medvedev said the aid would not deter Russia from achieving its goals in Ukraine.
“The completely crazy West could not come up with anything else … In fact, it is a dead end. World War Three is getting closer,” Medvedev wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Diplomats say Medvedev’s comments give an indication of thinking at the top levels of the Kremlin elite.
He also advocated on Tuesday for using the “inhuman weapon” that is cluster munitions after what he said were reports of Ukraine already using it.
The U.S. announced it would supply Kyiv with cluster munitions that typically release large numbers of small bomblets over a wide area and are banned by many countries.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said that Moscow would be forced to use “similar” weapons if the U.S. supplied cluster bombs to Ukraine.
Russia and Ukraine have previously accused each other of already using cluster munitions in the 500-day war.
Other media reports said:
Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine will continue and its goals will remain unchanged, including Kiev’s rejection of NATO membership, said Medvedev.
Commenting on the early results of the NATO summit in Vilnius, the Russian security official emphasized that NATO made the decision to eventually admit Ukraine, albeit “nobody knows when and on what conditions” and to boost its military assistance to Ukraine.
“What does it mean for us? It is crystal clear. The special military operation will continue with its goals unchanged. One of them is the rejection of NATO membership by the Kiev-based neo-Nazi group,” he said.
“We insisted on that from the very outset, but it is impossible, and, therefore, this group has to be eliminated. This is possible and necessary,” Medvedev wrote.
US, Europeans Depleted Their Weapons Stockpile Fighting Russia In Ukraine
U.S. President Joe Biden has taken flak over an explanation justifying the deployment of cluster munitions to Ukraine in which he admitted both Kiev and Washington are running out of ordinary 155-millimeter howitzer shells.
“This is a war relating to munitions. And they’re running out of that ammunition, and we’re low on it,” Biden said in a televised Friday interview, shortly after Washington’s announcement on the expedited delivery of M864 Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munition (DPICM) cluster bombs to Ukraine.
“And so, what I finally did, took the recommendation of the Defense Department, to not permanently, but to allow for, in this transition period, where we have more 155 weapons, these shells for Ukrainians, to provide them with something that has a very low dud rate,” Biden said.
The president’s comments were echoed by National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, who said in a Sunday chat show that the U.S. was running low on howitzer rounds.
The Ukrainians “are using artillery at a very accelerated rate, many thousands of rounds per day. This is literally a gun fight all along – from the Donbass all the way down towards Zaporozhye and Kherson. And so they’re running out of inventory,” Kirby said.
“We are trying to ramp up our production of the kind of artillery shells that they’re using most. But that production rate is still not where we want it to be. So we’re going to send these additional artillery shells that have cluster bomblets in them to help bridge the gap as we ramp up production of the normal 155 artillery shells,” the spokesman added.
Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl made a similar point on Friday, telling reporters Washington was looking to “bridge” a gap that exists between Ukrainian artillery round consumption and US and European production using cluster rounds.
“Vladimir Putin has a theory of victory, okay? His theory of victory is that he will outlast everybody. He will outlast the Ukrainians, he will outlast the United States, he will outlast the Europeans,” a flustered Kahl said. “That’s why President Biden has been clear that we are going to be with Ukraine as long as it takes and why we are signaling that we will continue to provide Ukraine with the capabilities that will keep them in the fight.”
Dedollarization Progress In Russia-China Trade
Media reports said:
Russia-China trade and economic cooperation is expanding, with over 80% of settlements between the two nations currently made in rubles and yuan, President Vladimir Putin has revealed.
The Russian leader was addressing a virtual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on Tuesday via videolink from Moscow. The 23rd SCO summit is being chaired by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
According to Putin, the volume of trade between Russia and fellow SCO member states reached a record $263 billion in 2022. The figure was up 35% in the first four months of this year, he noted. The share of the ruble in Russia’s settlements with the SCO countries exceeded 40%, Putin said.
Trade between Russia and China has continued to accelerate after hitting a historic high of $190.3 billion in annual terms in 2022. Exports and imports have surged at double-digit pace since the beginning of the year. According to customs data, bilateral trade soared to $93.8 billion in January-May, marking a 40.7% increase compared with a year ago. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov recently said that bilateral trade is on track to surpass the target of $200 billion a year earlier than anticipated.
Economic ties have been bolstered by the mutual decision to conduct the majority of transactions in national currencies instead of the US dollar.
