China, Russia to expand military coordination

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – China and Russia will “further deepen” and expand military coordination, said a joint statement Thursday, released after a meeting between the leaders of the two nations in Beijing.

Beijing and Moscow “will further deepen military mutual trust and cooperation, expand the scale of joint training activities, regularly organize joint maritime and air patrols, strengthen coordination and cooperation under bilateral and multilateral frameworks,” said the statement.

It added the two sides will “continuously improve the ability and level of both parties to jointly respond to risks and challenges.”

The statement came after President Xi Jinping hosted his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin who is on a two-day state visit to China.

- Opposition to military alliances in Asia-Pacific

Xi and Putin opposed “cobbling together a closed and exclusive bloc structure in Asia-Pacific, especially a military alliance against any third party.”

The joint statement pointed out that the US Indo-Pacific strategy and NATO's moves in the Asia-Pacific region “have had a negative impact on peace and stability in the region.”

Calling for upholding the principles of maintaining global strategic stability, security, equality and indivisibility, the joint statement said nuclear-power nations “should not expand military alliances and establish military bases near the borders of other nuclear-weapon states, especially the pre-deployment of nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles and other strategic military facilities that infringe upon each other's vital interests.”

“Comprehensive measures must be taken to prevent direct military confrontations between nuclear-weapon states, focusing on eliminating the root causes of conflicts in the security field,” said the statement.

According to the statement, Beijing and Moscow will also cooperate in the fields of information and communication technology, including artificial intelligence, communications, software, Internet of Things, open source, network and data security, electronic games, radio frequency coordination, vocational education and professional scientific research.

It added the two sides will “consolidate” their long-term partnership in the aerospace field, and implement major national space program projects that are in the common interests of China and Russia.

Beijing and Moscow will also promote cooperation in the field of lunar and deep space exploration, including the construction of international lunar scientific research stations, and strengthen China’s Beidou and Russia’s GLONASS satellite navigation systems.

- On Ukraine, Xi stresses political solution

Xi and Putin had “an in-depth exchange of views on the Ukraine crisis” during their one-to-one meeting in Zhongnanhai, China’s Vice Foreign Minister Hua Chunying said on X.

Zhongnanhai is a compound in Beijing that houses the offices of, and serves as a residence for, the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council.

“China will continue to play a constructive role in promoting the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis,” Xi told Putin as the two sides pointed out that “all actions that would delay the war and further escalate the conflict must be stopped.”

Xi and Putin called “for preventing the crisis from getting out of control” as the two sides emphasized that dialogue was “a good way to resolve the Ukraine crisis.”

Earlier during the day, Xi said Russia agreed with China that a political solution was the way forward to end the war in Ukraine.

Both sides believe, the joint statement added, “in order to steadily resolve the Ukraine crisis, it is necessary to eliminate the root causes of the crisis, adhere to the principle of indivisibility of security, and take into account the legitimate security interests and concerns of all countries.”

- Coordination on Afghanistan

On war-torn Afghanistan, Xi and Putin said the two sides were willing to strengthen coordination on Afghan affairs at the bilateral level and under multilateral mechanisms.

Calling for an independent, neutral, unified and peaceful Afghanistan, the joint statement charged the US and NATO “as the parties responsible for the 20-year invasion and occupation of Afghanistan” which “should not again attempt to deploy military facilities to Afghanistan and its surrounding areas.”

“Instead, they should bear the main responsibility for Afghanistan's current economic and people's livelihood difficulties and bear the main expenditures for Afghanistan's reconstruction and take all necessary measures to lift the freeze on Afghanistan’s national assets,” said the joint statement.