Putin Emphasizes Russia-China Relationship for ‘Building a Just Multipolar Order’
Aug. 31—Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized the importance of the Russia-China partnership for “building a just, multipolar world order, with a focus on the nations of the Global Majority,” in an Aug. 30 written interview with Xinhua given in preparation for the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China, on August 31-September 1.
The interview as a whole, which covered issues from economic cooperation (since 2021, bilateral trade has grown by the equivalent $100 billion), to cultural exchanges, to Russia and China’s joint role in institutions such as the SCO and the BRICS, reflected a single theme: The world is shifting to a new system, and Russia and China are playing a leading role in that.
In response to a question about the nations’ role within multilateral frameworks, Putin emphasized: “The Russia-China strategic partnership acts as a stabilizing force. As the two leading powers in Eurasia, we cannot remain indifferent to the challenges and threats facing our continent and the wider world. This issue is a constant focus of our bilateral political dialogue. Russia’s concept of creating a common space of equal and indivisible security in Eurasia resonates closely with President Xi Jinping’s Global Security Initiative.”
In discussing the events held in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, first in Moscow in May, and now in Beijing Sept. 3, Putin underscored the importance of the anniversary for both countries, and recounted that to mark the occasion, “we signed a Joint Statement on Further Deepening the China-Russia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Coordination for a New Era. This document provides a consolidated response by our countries to attempts by certain states to dismantle humanity’s historical memory and to replace the well-established principles of world order and dialogue forged after the Second World War with the so-called ‘rules-based order.’”
Putin also highlighted the need to reform existing institutions such as the UN and the IMF/World Bank to reflect the realities of a post-colonial world: “Alongside our Chinese partners, we support the reform of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. We are united in the view that a new financial system must be based on openness and true equity, providing equal and non-discriminatory access to its tools for all countries and reflecting the real standing of member states in the global economy. It is essential to end the use of finance as an instrument of neo-colonialism, which runs counter to the interests of the Global Majority. On the contrary, we seek progress for the benefit of all humanity.”
The problem with reforming such institutions as the IMF and World Bank," noted a diplomat with years of experience in dealing with them, "is that they are an integral part of the system enforcing the 'rules" of a dying and hopelessly bankrupt old order. That order has to be discarded in favor of a new, just world economic order that is based on the principles that Xi and Putin support, as the aspirations of the Global Majority."