China, Russia ties aimed at global good, Putin tells Sochi forum, slams West for making ‘an enemy out of everyone’

US-led Western alliances always force others to accept their ‘norms and rules’, Russian president tells Valdai think tank’s annual forum in Sochi
Russia-China ties ‘very important’ for global stability, Vladimir Putin says ahead of planned visit to Beijing and meeting with China’s Xi Jinping

Ukraine war

Kawala Xie

Published: 5:21pm, 6 Oct 2023

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China and Russia are “important factors” for global stability, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, as he pledged to increase security and economic cooperation with Beijing in the face of a confrontational and “bloc-based” Western order.

Addressing an international forum in Sochi on Thursday, Putin said Russia-China cooperation aimed to benefit the world while US-led Western alliances always forced others to accept their “norms and rules”.

“They are trying to create the image of an enemy out of everyone who is not ready to blindly follow these Western elites”, with Russia and China often pointed out as targets, Putin told the Valdai International Discussion Club’s annual forum, hosted by the Moscow-based think tank in the Black Sea resort town this year.

“The West always needs an enemy … the fight against which can explain the need for forceful action and expansion.”

US policy towards China was based on “geopolitical fears” about Beijing’s growing power, Putin said, warning that the Western “bloc-based” approach of trying to maintain hegemony threatened global peace, while Russia and China aimed to do good for the world.

“Cooperation between Russia and the People’s Republic of China is, of course, a very important factor stabilising the world,” he said.

“It is aimed exclusively at achieving a positive result both for us – Russia and China – and for our partners around the world.”

02:46

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He said Russia would step up security cooperation with China to respond to Nato expansion – now extending further eastward to Asia – which had resulted in the Ukraine crisis, as “Nato expanding to our borders directly threatens our security”.

“We see that one of the ways to provoke and create a crisis in Ukraine was the irrepressible desire of Western countries, and especially the United States, to expand Nato to the borders of the Russian Federation. They do the same in the East, creating various closed military groups.”

The remarks come in the lead-up to Putin’s planned visit to Beijing this month, when he is expected to attend the third Belt and Road Forum and meet Chinese President Xi Jinping. Xi invited Putin to the forum during a high-profile visit to Moscow in March reaffirming the robust China-Russia partnership.

It will be the Russian leader’s first trip to China since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year.

It will also be Putin’s first known overseas trip since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against him in March for alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Moscow denies the charges.

Amid isolation, China has no choice but to move closer to Russia: expert

Representatives from more than 130 countries, mostly from the developing world, are expected to attend the Belt and Road Forum as China ramps up efforts to offer an alternative to the Western-dominated global system, while continuing to hold up its landmark infrastructure and development initiative as a model for connecting Asia with the world.

In his keynote speech at the Sochi forum, Putin once again denied accusations that Russia was prolonging the war in Ukraine, which is now in its 20th month.

Ukrainian and Russian troop casualties were close to half a million, US officials said in August, while United Nations reports last month said at least 9,700 civilians had been killed in the conflict.

Russian missiles killed around 50 civilians in northeastern Ukraine on Thursday, according to Kyiv.

03:42

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Putin said the war would not last more than a week if the West stopped their military and financial aid to Ukraine, which now risked a cut amid growing divisions in the US Congress that saw the ousting of House speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday.

“We do not create any blocs against anyone, but we are forced to react to what is happening around our states,” Putin said.

Recent Nato attempts to set up a liaison office in Japan, a US treaty ally, has triggered strong protests from China, which has accused the bloc of undermining the security of the region.

Washington’s focus on strengthening Asia-Pacific alliances in a bid to counter Beijing in the South and East China seas and Taiwan, have also often been cited as examples of Nato’s eastward expansion.

Putin said Russia and China would also strengthen economic ties, especially through infrastructure projects.

They also aimed to set up new logistics routes and projects that better synergised China’s Belt and Road Initiative and infrastructure networks within the Eurasian Economic Union, he said, referring to Russia’s grouping with former Soviet states Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia.

‘Very high level’: Putin plays up Russia’s economic ties with China

Putin praised the recent expansion of Brics, a developing nations-led alliance backed by both Moscow and Beijing that is increasingly seen to challenge the Western-led Group of Seven bloc.

“[The Brics expansion] is very important, it testifies to the growth of authority and, most importantly, the desire to join a format that does not oblige anyone to anything, does not impose anything on anyone, but simply creates conditions for finding compromises and resolving those issues, in the solution of which all participating countries are interested,” Putin said.

“We are happy about this and believe that this is a positive process.”

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