China, Russia Hail Military Ties, Vow To Cooperate For “Global, Regional” Security
China and Russia have vowed to “strengthen” military cooperation to safeguard “global and regional security” during a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US-sanctioned Chinese defence minister Li Shangfu in Moscow on Sunday, Chinese official media reported on Monday.
The meeting between Putin and Li took place in the backdrop of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, which Beijing has declined to call it so and has instead accused the US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) of provoking Moscow.
Li’s three-day Russia visit, which began Sunday, assumes significance as it comes within weeks of Xi’s high-profile Russia visit and deepening Western apprehension about China selling lethal weapons to Moscow with which it has a “no limits friendship”.
Beijing claims neutrality in the war and also floated a peace proposal in February but is seen as Moscow’s close ally, providing it with critical support against the US-led West.
Li, who is a state councillor and a veteran of China’s ongoing drive to modernise the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), came under US’ scrutiny five years ago for allegedly purchasing Su-35 combat aircraft and S-400 missile system equipment from Russian arms seller Rosoboronexport.
Li at the time was the director of the Equipment Development Department of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC), the President Xi Jinping-headed top Chinese defence organisation.
“Military cooperation plays an important role in Russia-China relations,” Putin told Li, adding that he hoped that two militaries will “…strengthen cooperation in joint training, professional exchanges and other fields, and that the strategic mutual trust between the two countries will continue to be deepened”.
“The military mutual trust between the two countries has been increasingly consolidated with substantial progress in cooperation,” Li told Putin, according to a readout of the meeting, released by official news agency, Xinhua.
China, Li said, is ready “further strengthen the strategic communication between the two militaries” and “bolster multilateral coordination and cooperation” to safeguard “global and regional security and stability”.
“We have very close relations. They outperform military-political unions of the Cold War era. They rest on the principles of non-alignment…and are very stable,” Li said, according to official Russian TASS news agency.
Li will have separate talks with Russian counterpart, Shoigu, to discuss, according to TASS, “the current state and prospects for the development of bilateral cooperation in the defense sphere, as well as current issues of global and regional security.”