Key Provisions of the Russia-China Joint Statement

Feb. 4, 2022 (EIRNS)—TASS issued its selection of key points from the 16-page document issued today, “http://en.kremlin.ru/supplement/5770Joint Statement of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China on the International Relations Entering a New Era and the Global Sustainable Development.” The full statement is posted to the Kremlin website, and in Chinese to China’s Foreign Ministry site.

Relations between Moscow and Beijing

• The new type of Russian-Chinese relations surpasses the military-political alliances of the Cold War: “Friendship between the two states has no limits, there are no ‘forbidden’ areas of cooperation, strengthening of bilateral strategic cooperation is neither aimed against third countries nor affected by the changing international environment and circumstantial changes in third countries.”

• Moscow points to the positive significance of the Chinese concept of a “community with a common destiny for mankind,” and Beijing highlights the positive role of Russian efforts to form a fair, multipolar system of international relations.

• Russia and China intend to intensify the integration of the development plans of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the Belt and Road Initiative and will strengthen cooperation within the framework of multilateral mechanisms, including the UN.

• Moscow and Beijing will increase cooperation in the development and production of vaccines and drugs against coronavirus. They oppose the politicization of the origin of a new infection—it is a “matter of science.”

• The parties intend to firmly uphold the inviolability of the results of the Second World War and the established post-war world order, and resist attempts to distort and falsify its history.

U.S. and NATO

• Russia and China oppose further NATO expansion and call on the alliance to abandon Cold War approaches. Beijing “understands and supports” Russian proposals for the formation of long-term security guarantees in Europe.

• They oppose the formation of “closed bloc structures and opposing camps” in the Asia-Pacific region and “remain highly vigilant about the negative impact on peace and stability” of the United States’ Indo-Pacific strategy. In particular, both sides are seriously concerned about the establishment of the AUKUS partnership among the U.S., U.K. and Australia.

• Moscow and Beijing are urging Washington to abandon plans to deploy ground-based intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region and will strengthen coordination on this issue.

• The parties also condemn the withdrawal of the United States from a number of international treaties: “The denunciation of a number of important international agreements in the field of arms control by the United States has an extremely negative impact on international and regional security and stability.”

International Relationships

• Moscow and Beijing are deeply concerned about the challenges in the field of international security and believe that “No State can or should ensure its own security separately from the security of the rest of the world and at the expense of the security of other States.”

• They confirm “firm mutual support” in matters of protecting their fundamental interests, state sovereignty and territorial integrity. Moscow adheres to the “one China” principle and opposes Taiwan independence “in whatever form.”

• Russia and China intend to oppose the interference of external forces in the internal affairs of sovereign countries “under any pretext,” oppose the so-called color revolutions and will increase cooperation in the matter.

• All nuclear powers should “abandon the Cold War mentality and zero-sum games, reduce the role of nuclear weapons in their policies ... withdraw nuclear weapons deployed abroad, exclude the unrestricted development of global missile defense.”

• Moscow and Beijing oppose attempts to turn outer space into an “arena of armed confrontation” and are calling for negotiations to start as soon as possible to conclude a multilateral treaty to prevent the placement of weapons in outer space. Commitments by countries not to be the first to place it “should complement, but not replace” a legally binding agreement.

• Russia and China stand up for a multilateral trading system based on the central role of the World Trade Organization and against protectionism. They are also opposed to creating new barriers to international trade under the pretext of combating climate change.

Principles of Democracy

• Moscow and Beijing are unanimous that “democracy is a universal human value, rather than a privilege of a limited number of States.... There is no one-size-fits-all template to guide countries in establishing democracy. A nation can choose such forms and methods of implementing democracy that would best suit its particular state, based on its social and political system, its historical background, traditions and unique cultural characteristics. It is only up to the people of the country to decide whether their State is a democratic one.”

• “Attempts by individual states to impose on other countries ‘democratic standards’ ... are in fact an example of trampling on democracy and retreat from its spirit and true values.” The defense of democracy and human rights should not be used as an instrument of pressure on other countries and interference in their internal affairs.

• All states must follow the basic principles in the field of human rights, but “due to national specifics ... it is necessary to correlate the universality of human rights with the real situation in a particular country.”

• Russia and China stand for equal rights to control the Internet and consider unacceptable any attempts to limit their sovereign right to regulate and ensure the security of its national segments.