Russia, China reaffirm comprehensive partnership against US moves

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday reaffirmed their resolve to jointly counter US plans for a "Golden Dome" missile shield and NATO's eastward expansion, which they said are aimed at containing Moscow and Beijing.

Xi arrived here on Wednesday for a four-day official visit and will take part in celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, including the Victory Parade at Red Square on Friday.

After over seven-hour-long talks, Putin and Xi signed a joint statement and a package of bilateral intergovernmental and interagency documents. 

According to the Kremlin, the documents signed include joint statements on global strategic stability, and strengthening cooperation to maintain the authority of international law.

In the joint statement on global strategic stability, the two countries said they are convinced that the Golden Dome programme of the US is "deeply destabilising".

The recently announced large-scale program Golden Dome for America, which envisages the creation of an unconstrained, global and multi-tier missile defence system providing protection against any missile threats, including all types of missiles of adversaries equal or similar in strength, also has a deeply destabilising character, it says.

The statement said it means a "complete and ultimate rejection to recognise the existence of the inseparable interrelationship between strategic offensive arms and strategic defensive arms". This relationship, it said, is one of the central principles of maintaining global strategic stability.

Moscow and Beijing "oppose the attempts of individual countries to use outer space for armed confrontation", and will "counter security policies and activities aimed at achieving military superiority, and at officially defining and using outer space as a 'warfighting domain'," it said.

To "safeguard world peace, ensure equal and indivisible security for all", and "improve the predictability and sustainability of the exploration and peaceful use of outer space", Russia and China also said they would globally promote the "international initiative and political commitment not to be the first to deploy weapons in outer space". 

In a veiled dig at NATO, the statement also condemned the highly destabilising expansion of military alliances by some nuclear-weapon states near others' borders to establish footholds, project power, and threaten their core security interests.

The two sides strongly condemn such "provocative activities" that they said "undermine regional stability and global security".

Other documents signed after the meeting included interdepartmental documents concerning biological safety, cooperation in digital transformation and the digital economy; creation and development of megascience research facilities; combating infectious diseases; and cooperation in building a lunar power station for the International Scientific Lunar Station.

After delegation-level talks, Putin said Xi's visit coincides with the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, which the two and other leaders will mark at Friday's parade.

"The soldiers and officers of the People's Liberation Army of China will march shoulder to shoulder with the military units from Russia and other states in a ceremonial procession on Red Square, Putin said.

He added that the two leaders agreed to meet again in Beijing in September to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and honour Soviet and Chinese troops who fought together against Japan.

In the war against Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union lost at least 27 million people, while China is estimated to have lost 20 million people during the Japanese occupation.

Our shared heroic past and combat brotherhood form a solid foundation for the development and strengthening of Russia-China relations. These relations have reached the highest level in history, being self-sufficient and independent from internal political factors or momentary global agendas," he said.

Putin added that the "comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation" between Russia and China is built on the "unshakable principles of equality, mutual support and assistance.