On June 28, the Russia-China
Friendship Society held a meeting on the occasion of the 23rd anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation
between the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China. The event Plenipotentiary
Minister of the Chinese Embassy in Russia Zhang Wei, Director of the First
Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Ivan
Zhelohovtsev, Chairman of the Chinese Entrepreneurs Union in Russia Zhou Liqun attended
the meeting. The Chairman of the Russia-China Friendship Society, First Deputy
Chairman of the State Duma Ivan Melnikov
Ivan Ivanovich
opened the meeting.
In his opening remarks, the parliamentarian noted that “year after year, such meetings give us the opportunity to emphasize the core significance of this Treaty for the entire complex of modern Russian-Chinese relations, for all the specific work that we do every day, including in the Russia-China Friendship Society.” He recalled that the “Treaty of the century” was signed in the summer of 2001 by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Jiang Zemin and it laid a solid legal foundation for the development of our bilateral relations. “And all 23 years after its signing showed a successful example of building interstate relations of a new type — relations that are based on mutual respect for interests and friendship between the two great nations,” added Ivan Melnikov.
“I will never forget that in the harsh days of 2021, during the time of coronavirus pandemic, the State Duma made an exception for holding only one mass public event — an exhibition dedicated to the anniversary of this Treaty. This was a personal strong-willed decision of the Chairman of the State Duma. And this means a lot,” said the First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma.
According to the parliamentarian, today millions of people from different parts of the world really look at the Russian-Chinese strategic partnership with hope. “After all, practice has shown: the Western model of international relations is the same old imperialism, only in its new form,” emphasized Ivan Melnikov.
“And we also see that Western elites do not tolerate Russian and Chinese efforts to create a fairer, multipolar world that balances different interests,” he said.
“Guided by the United States, they advocate “democracy,” “globalization,” “independence and sovereignty” in the opportunistic meaning of these important notions. For example, speaking about respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, the United States has repeatedly blatantly interfered in the internal affairs of other countries directly or provoked conflicts by proxy,” Ivan Melnikov said in his speech.
“There is the same approach towards Russia, and towards China, and towards our comprehensive partnership: the more our countries and our relations developed, the more intolerance there was. We saw aggressive illegitimate sanctions, the offensive expansion of the NATO military bloc to the east, and the escalation of the Taiwan situation,” noted the First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma. “Now there is no secret that Western politicians do not really care about the stability and prosperity of the planet, about the future of humanity. They are guided solely by their own interests, creating chaos that benefits them in different regions of the world,” he added.
In his speech, Ivan Melnikov drew attention to the strategic decisions that were made at the level of heads of states, to the regular intergovernmental and inter-parliamentary cooperation, to the socio-economic, humanitarian and other kind of cooperation in the interests of the two nations. “All this contributes in the work we are doing and goes beyond the professional community that has always been interested in China, its history and traditions of the country,” he concluded.
