The Russian president discusses wartime legacy, financial ties, strategic cooperation and shared worldwide targets
President Vladimir Putin has outlined the deepening alliance between Russia and China, highlighting their shared historic legacy and customary imaginative and prescient for a multipolar international order, in a written interview with Xinhua News Agency revealed forward of his go to to China.
Putin praised the neighbours’ united stance in opposition to historic revisionism and outlined broad cooperation in commerce, power, schooling, defence, and multilateral diplomacy. Below is the complete textual content of the interview as revealed by the Kremlin:
Question: In May this yr, President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping paid a state go to to Russia and took half within the celebrations marking the eightieth anniversary of Victory within the Great Patriotic War – a go to that proved extremely profitable. Your personal go to to China is predicted shortly. What are your expectations for the upcoming go to? Over the previous decade, you and President Xi have maintained shut contacts, shaping and guiding the regular improvement of bilateral relations. How would you describe President Xi Jinping as a frontrunner?
President of Russia Vladimir Putin:Indeed, the go to of our pal, President of China Xi Jinping, to Russia in May was a powerful success, drew broad worldwide consideration and was extremely regarded in our nation. His arrival coincided with a date that’s sacred to us, the eightieth anniversary of Victory within the Great Patriotic War, thereby lending deep symbolic significance to the additional improvement of Russian-Chinese relations. We reaffirmed the strategic alternative of our peoples in favour of strengthening the traditions of good-neighbourliness, friendship, and long-term, mutually useful cooperation.
The Chinese chief was the principal visitor of honour on the celebrations in Moscow. During our high-level talks, we held a really productive dialogue of key points in cooperation between our nations. The end result was a complete joint assertion and the signing of a considerable bundle of bilateral paperwork.
Very quickly, on the invitation of President Xi, I’ll pay a return go to to China. I drastically sit up for visiting town of Tianjin, which is able to host the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit beneath China’s presidency. We count on that the summit will give the Organisation highly effective new momentum, strengthen its capability to reply to modern challenges and threats, and improve solidarity throughout our shared Eurasian house. All this can assist form a fairer multipolar world order.
As for the Russian-Chinese talks, these will happen in Beijing. I sit up for in-depth discussions with President Xi Jinping on all elements of our bilateral agenda, together with political and safety cooperation, in addition to financial, cultural and humanitarian ties. And, as at all times, we’ll change views on urgent regional and worldwide points.
In Beijing, we can even pay tribute to the shared act of heroism of our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers, who collectively defeated militarist Japan, thereby bringing the Second World War to its ultimate conclusion. We will honour the reminiscence of those that sealed with their blood the brotherhood of our peoples, defended the liberty and independence of our states, and secured their proper to sovereign improvement.
President Xi Jinping treats his nation’s historical past with utmost respect; I do know this from private communication with him. He is a real chief of an ideal world energy, a person of robust will, endowed with strategic imaginative and prescient and a world outlook, and unwavering in his dedication to nationwide pursuits. It is of outstanding significance for China that such an individual stands on the helm at this difficult, pivotal second in worldwide affairs. The President of China units an instance for your entire world of what a respectful and equitable dialogue with international companions can and needs to be right now. In Russia, we deeply worth the Chinese chief’s real dedication to advancing our complete partnership and strategic cooperation.
Question: China and the Soviet Union, because the principal battlegrounds of the Second World War in Asia and Europe, bore huge sacrifices and made a major contribution to victory within the international struggle in opposition to fascism. In your view, what’s the relevance of preserving the reminiscence of that Victory in right now’s advanced worldwide setting? How ought to China and Russia collectively defend their shared historic reminiscence at a time when some forces on the worldwide stage try to distort historic fact?
V.Putin:As I’ve already famous, this yr, along with our Chinese buddies, we commemorate the eightieth anniversary of Victory within the Great Patriotic War and the capitulation of militarist Japan, which marked the tip of the Second World War.
The peoples of the Soviet Union and China bore the brunt of the preventing and suffered the heaviest losses. It was our residents who endured the best hardships within the wrestle in opposition to the invaders and performed a decisive position in defeating Nazism and militarism. Through these extreme trials, the best traditions of friendship and mutual help had been solid and strengthened – traditions that right now kind a strong basis for Russian-Chinese relations.
I’d remind you that even earlier than the full-scale outbreak of the Second World War, within the Thirties, when Japan treacherously launched a conflict of aggression in opposition to China, the Soviet Union prolonged a serving to hand to the Chinese folks. Thousands of our profession officers served as navy advisers, helping in strengthening the Chinese military and offering steering in fight operations. Soviet pilots additionally fought bravely alongside their Chinese brothers-in-arms.
Between October 1937 and June 1941, the Soviet Union provided China with 1,235 plane, 1000’s of artillery items, tens of 1000’s of machine weapons, in addition to ammunition, tools, and provides. The principal route was an overland hall via Central Asia to China’s Xinjiang Province, the place Soviet specialists constructed a street in document time to make sure uninterrupted deliveries.
The historic document leaves little question as to the dimensions and ferocity of these battles. We bear in mind the nice significance of the well-known Hundred Regiments Offensive, when Chinese Communist forces liberated a territory with a inhabitants of 5 million from Japanese occupation. We additionally recall the unparalleled feats of Soviet troops and commanders of their clashes with Japan at Lake Khasan and the Khalkhin Gol River. In the summer time of 1939, our legendary commander Georgy Zhukov received his first main victory within the Mongolian steppes, which in impact foreshadowed the later defeat of the Berlin-Tokyo-Rome Axis. In 1945, the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation performed a decisive position in liberating northeast China, dramatically altering the state of affairs within the Far East and making the capitulation of militarist Japan inevitable.
In Russia, we’ll always remember that China’s heroic resistance was one of many essential components that prevented Japan from stabbing the Soviet Union within the again through the darkest months of 1941-1942. This enabled the Red Army to pay attention its efforts on crushing Nazism and liberating Europe. Close cooperation between our two international locations was additionally an essential component in forming the anti-Hitler coalition, strengthening China as an ideal energy, and within the constructive discussions that formed the post-war settlement and helped to reinvigorate the anti-colonial motion.
It is our sacred obligation to honour the reminiscence of our compatriots who displayed true patriotism and braveness, endured all hardships, and defeated highly effective and ruthless enemies. We pay deep respect to all veterans and people who gave their lives for the liberty of future generations and the independence of our international locations. We are grateful to China for its cautious preservation of memorials to Red Army troopers who gave their lives in battles for the liberation of China.
Such a honest and accountable angle in the direction of the previous stands in stark distinction to the state of affairs in some European international locations, the place monuments and graves of Soviet liberators are desecrated in a barbaric method or destroyed, and inconvenient historic information are erased.
We see that in sure Western states the outcomes of the Second World War are de facto revised, and the verdicts of the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals are brazenly disregarded. These harmful tendencies stem from a reluctance to acknowledge the direct culpability of the predecessors of right now’s Western elites in unleashing the world conflict, and the need to erase the shameful pages of their very own historical past, thereby encouraging revanchism and neo-Nazism. Historical fact is being distorted and suppressed to go well with their present political agendas. Japanese militarism is being revived beneath the pretext of imaginary Russian or Chinese threats, whereas in Europe, together with Germany, steps are being taken in the direction of the re-militarisation of the continent, with little regard for historic parallels.
Russia and China resolutely condemn any makes an attempt to distort the historical past of the Second World War, glorify Nazis, militarists and their accomplices, members of demise squads and killers, or to defame Soviet liberators. The outcomes of that conflict are enshrined within the UN Charter and different worldwide devices. They are inviolable and never topic to revision. This is our shared, unwavering place with our Chinese buddies.
The reminiscence of the joint wrestle of the Soviet and Chinese peoples in opposition to German Nazism and Japanese militarism is a permanent worth for us. I want to reiterate that the participation of President Xi Jinping in Russia’s commemorations of the eightieth anniversary of the Great Victory carried profound symbolic significance. To mark the eightieth anniversary of the USSR’s Victory within the Great Patriotic War, China’s Victory within the War of Resistance in opposition to Japanese Aggression, and the founding of the United Nations, we signed a Joint Statement on Further Deepening the China-Russia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Coordination for a New Era. This doc supplies a consolidated response by our international locations to makes an attempt by sure states to dismantle humanity’s historic reminiscence and to exchange the well-established rules of world order and dialogue solid after the Second World War with the so-called “rules-based order.”
Question: In current years, sensible cooperation between China and Russia in areas similar to power, agriculture, automotive manufacturing and infrastructure has produced constructive outcomes and caused new breakthroughs, whereas bilateral commerce has reached document ranges. How do you assess the present state of Chinese-Russian sensible cooperation? What are your plans for additional selling high-quality, mutually useful cooperation between China and Russia?
V.Putin:Economic relations between Russia and China have reached an unprecedented stage. Since 2021, bilateral commerce has grown by about 100 billion {dollars}. In phrases of commerce quantity, China is by far Russia’s main accomplice, whereas final yr Russia ranked fifth amongst China’s international commerce companions. I’d stress that whereas commerce figures are denominated in US dollar equivalents, transactions between Russia and China are carried out in rubles and yuan, with the dollar or euro share decreased to a statistical discrepancy.
Russia firmly retains its place as a number one exporter of oil and gasoline to China. Since the Power of Siberia pipeline started its operation in 2019, cumulative deliveries of pure gasoline have already exceeded 100 billion cubic metres. In 2027, we plan to launch one other main gasoline route, the so-called Far Eastern Route. We are additionally working collectively successfully on LNG initiatives in Russia’s Arctic area.
We proceed our joint efforts to scale back bilateral commerce limitations. In current years, the export of pork and beef to China has been launched. Overall, agricultural and meals merchandise occupy a distinguished place in Russia’s exports to China.
Bilateral funding volumes are rising. Last yr, Russia and China agreed to an up to date Plan for Bilateral Investment Cooperation. This yr, a brand new Agreement on the Promotion and Mutual Protection of Investments has been signed. Large-scale joint initiatives are being applied in precedence sectors.
Our international locations are cooperating carefully in trade. Russia is likely one of the world’s principal markets for Chinese automotive exports. At the identical time, manufacturing is being localised in Russia not just for Chinese vehicles but in addition for family home equipment. Together, we’re constructing high-tech manufacturing and infrastructure services. We even have large-scale plans within the development supplies trade.
To sum up, financial cooperation, commerce and industrial collaboration between our international locations are advancing throughout a number of areas. During my upcoming go to, we will definitely focus on additional prospects for mutually useful cooperation and new steps to accentuate it for the advantage of the peoples of Russia and China.
Question: This yr marks the conclusion of the cross years of tradition between China and Russia. During this era, our international locations have developed in depth cooperation in schooling, cinema, theatre, tourism, and sports activities. How do you assess the outcomes of Chinese-Russian cultural and humanitarian exchanges and cooperation? What prospects do you see for additional selling ties between the peoples of China and Russia?
V.Putin:Large-scale bilateral cultural and humanitarian initiatives make a major contribution to fostering pleasant relations. The Russian Year in China and the Chinese Year in Russia (2006-2007) had been an ideal success. The subsequent themed years of languages, tourism, youth, media, regional cooperation, sport, science and innovation, launched successively from 2009 onwards, acquired broad public resonance.
Today, cultural exchanges between Russia and China proceed to develop dynamically. The Russia-China Roadmap for Humanitarian Cooperation till 2030, which incorporates greater than 100 main initiatives, is being persistently applied.
I’d significantly spotlight the profitable organisation of the Russia and China Years of Culture, held in 2024-2025 and timed to the seventy fifth anniversary of diplomatic relations between our international locations. The wealthy and numerous programme met with an enthusiastic response each in Russia and China.
I’d additionally notice that the Russian facet initiated the Intervision International Song Contest, scheduled for September 20 this yr, and we’re happy that our Chinese companions have proven eager curiosity on this venture.
Education and science stay particularly promising areas for cooperation. Academic mobility and inter-university contacts proceed to develop. Today, greater than 51,000 Chinese college students are finding out in Russia, whereas 21,000 Russian college students are finding out in China. In May, President Xi and I agreed that 2026-2027 shall be designated because the Russia-China Years of Education.
Cooperation in science, know-how, and innovation can be increasing, together with in elementary analysis and megascience initiatives. For instance, Moscow State University and Peking University plan to open a joint institute for elementary analysis. We absolutely assist the institution of recent laboratories and superior centres in precedence high-tech fields to strengthen the technological sovereignty of Russia and China.
Film manufacturing is one other vibrant space of cooperation. In February, the joint Russian-Chinese journey movie Red Silk premiered in Russia, and we count on it to achieve Chinese audiences quickly. In May, an Action Plan for Film Production was signed in Moscow. We anticipate the discharge of many new Russian-Chinese movies within the close to future: movies that can promote sound ethical rules and conventional non secular and moral values, whereas presenting truthful accounts of essential historic occasions. To this finish, we’ve got additionally launched a brand new initiative, the Open Eurasian Film Award, a novel platform for cinema, free from bias or political intrigue.
Tourism is one other essential sphere I want to notice. The figures listed here are encouraging: by the tip of 2024, mutual vacationer flows had elevated 2.5 occasions, reaching 2.8 million folks.
Sports cooperation has additionally been productive. We are grateful to our Chinese companions for his or her energetic participation in worldwide sporting occasions hosted by Russia, together with the modern Games of the Future, BRICS Games, and plenty of others. The Chinese nationwide workforce was among the many largest delegations at these competitions. We firmly imagine that sport ought to stay free from any politicisation.
Youth coverage is one other precedence space.
We extremely worth the coordinated work of main Russian and Chinese media, and our cooperation between archives performs an essential position in preserving historic fact.
It is encouraging that bilateral cultural and humanitarian cooperation continues to realize momentum. This is undoubtedly a strategic dimension of our relationship, serving to to construct a broad public base of friendship, good-neighbourliness, and mutual understanding.
Question: The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), collectively established by China and Russia, serves as an essential platform for complete regional cooperation, essential for guaranteeing peace, stability, and improvement throughout the Eurasian house. China holds the rotating SCO presidency for 2024-2025, and the twenty fifth SCO Heads of State Council assembly will quickly happen in Tianjin. How do you assess the constructive position the SCO has performed over greater than twenty years in sustaining regional peace and stability and selling frequent improvement and prosperity? In your view, during which areas ought to member states additional strengthen exchanges and cooperation?
V.Putin:The institution of the SCO in 2001 embodied the shared aspiration of Russia, China, and the Central Asian states – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan – to construct belief, friendship, and good-neighbourly relations, and to advertise peace and stability within the area.
Over the years, the SCO has developed a strong authorized and institutional framework, creating mechanisms that allow efficient cooperation in politics, safety, commerce and funding, in addition to cultural and humanitarian exchanges. Since then, its membership has expanded to incorporate India, Pakistan, Iran, and Belarus, whereas accomplice and observer international locations, representing the political, financial, and cultural variety of Eurasia, are additionally actively engaged in joint actions.
The SCO’s attraction lies in its easy however highly effective rules: a agency dedication to its founding philosophy, openness to equal cooperation, non-confrontation with third events, and respect for the nationwide traits and uniqueness of every nation.
Drawing on these values, the SCO contributes to shaping a fairer, multipolar world order, grounded in worldwide regulation, with the central coordinating position of the United Nations. A serious component of this international imaginative and prescient is the creation in Eurasia of an structure of equal and indivisible safety, together with via shut coordination amongst SCO member states. We view the Greater Eurasian Partnership, linking nationwide improvement methods, regional integration initiatives, and strengthening ties among the many SCO, the Eurasian Economic Union, the CIS, ASEAN, and different worldwide organisations, because the socio-economic basis of this structure.
I’m assured that the Tianjin summit, together with the SCO Plus assembly, will mark an essential milestone within the SCO’s historical past. We absolutely assist the priorities declared by the Chinese presidency, which give attention to consolidating the SCO, deepening cooperation in all areas, and enhancing the organisation’s position on the worldwide stage. We connect explicit significance to aligning this work with the sensible measures taken beneath Russia’s presidency of the SCO Heads of Government Council. I’m assured that, via our joint efforts, we’ll give the SCO new momentum, modernising it to fulfill the calls for of the time.
Question: As President Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasised, China is able to work hand in hand with Russia to strengthen mutual assist throughout multilateral platforms, together with the UN, the SCO, and BRICS, to safeguard the event and safety pursuits of each nations, unite the Global South, and promote a world order that’s fairer and extra rational. How do you assess cooperation between China and Russia inside these multilateral frameworks? In your view, during which areas can China and Russia set new benchmarks in international governance, significantly with regard to rising fields similar to local weather change, synthetic intelligence governance, and reform of the worldwide safety structure?
V.Putin:Cooperation between Russia and China in multilateral codecs is a key pillar of our bilateral relations and performs a significant position in international affairs. Time and once more, our exchanges on important worldwide points have proven that Moscow and Beijing share broad frequent pursuits and strikingly comparable views on elementary questions. We are united in our imaginative and prescient of constructing a simply, multipolar world order, with a give attention to the nations of the Global Majority.
The Russia-China strategic partnership acts as a stabilising drive. As the 2 main powers in Eurasia, we can not stay detached to the challenges and threats dealing with our continent and the broader world. This problem is a continuing focus of our bilateral political dialogue. Russia’s idea of making a standard house of equal and indivisible safety in Eurasia resonates carefully with President Xi Jinping’s Global Security Initiative.
The interplay between Russia and China on the UN is at an unprecedentedly excessive stage, absolutely reflecting the spirit of complete partnership and strategic cooperation. Both international locations connect particular significance to the Group of Friends in Defence of the UN Charter, an important mechanism for consolidating the Global South. Among its key achievements is the decision “Eradication of colonialism in all its forms and manifestations,” adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 4, 2024.
Russia and China assist reform of the UN in order that it absolutely restores its authority and displays trendy realities. In explicit, we advocate for making the Security Council extra democratic by together with states from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Any such reforms should, nonetheless, be approached with the utmost care.
Close cooperation between Moscow and Beijing has positively formed the work of main financial boards, together with the G20 and APEC. Within the G20, along with like-minded nations, and particularly BRICS members, we’ve got redirected the agenda in the direction of problems with actual significance to the Global Majority, strengthened the format by together with the African Union, and deepened the synergies between the G20 and BRICS.
This yr, our South African buddies maintain the G20 presidency. As a results of their efforts, we sit up for consolidating the Global South’s achievements and establishing them as a basis for the democratisation of worldwide relations. Within APEC, China’s chairmanship in 2026 is predicted to provide contemporary impetus to Russia-China engagement.
We are working carefully with China inside BRICS to increase its position as a key pillar of worldwide structure. Together, we advance initiatives aimed toward increasing financial alternatives for member states, together with the creation of frequent platforms for partnership in strategic sectors. We are paying particular consideration to mobilising further assets for important infrastructure initiatives. We stand united in strengthening BRICS’ capability to deal with urgent international challenges, share comparable views on regional and worldwide safety, and take a standard stand in opposition to discriminatory sanctions that hinder the socioeconomic improvement of BRICS members and the world at giant.
Alongside our Chinese companions, we assist the reform of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. We are united within the view {that a} new monetary system should be based mostly on openness and true fairness, offering equal and non-discriminatory entry to its instruments for all international locations and reflecting the actual standing of member states within the international economic system. It is crucial to finish using finance as an instrument of neo-colonialism, which runs counter to the pursuits of the Global Majority. On the opposite, we search progress for the advantage of all humanity. I’m assured that Russia and China will proceed to work collectively in the direction of this noble objective, aligning our efforts to make sure the prosperity of our nice nations.
(RT.com)