Russia and China have agreed to deepen their cooperation on security and instability in the region, at a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“The sides express their intention to build up cooperation in all areas, and for this purpose they will be developing strategic trust-based dialogue at high and top levels and continue to develop mechanisms of bilateral intergovernmental, interparliamentary, interparty, interagency and interregional cooperation,” the two countries said in a joint statement, as reported by Russia’s state-owned news outlet Tass.
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The two countries said they would also cooperate more closely on “growing instability and uncertainty in the world.” Increased military cooperation is also a goal.
“Russia and China intend to further build up strategic contacts and coordination between their armed forces, improve the existing mechanisms of military cooperation, expand interaction in the field of practical military and military-technical cooperation and jointly resist challenges to global and regional security,” they said.
The statement comes as the U.S. continues to wrestle with Russia and China’s influence around the world. The U.S. and Russia have worked at cross-purposes in Syria, and Russia has vetoed U.S.-sponsored resolutions on Syria at the United Nations.
China has been a more stable partner for the U.S. when dealing with North Korea. But tensions between U.S. and China have been rising over China’s territorial claims to the South China Sea.
