Putin's visit to Beijing to strengthen cooperation between Russia and China

Yesterday Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in China. Today he will participate in events dedicated to the 70th anniversary of victory in the Second World War.

In addition, Putin will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to discuss various issues of bilateral trade and economic cooperation as well as topical international and regional problems.

The Director of the Center for Studies of Eastern Asia and the SCO of the Institute for International Studies of MGIMO, Alexander Lukin, said that Moscow and Beijing have been strategic partners since the 1990s. However, this does not diminish the importance of the current visit of Vladimir Putin. "China has decided to celebrate the anniversary of the defeat of Japan for the first time under Russian influence. Therefore, the presence of Putin, who represents a country that was an ally of China during the war and provided it with a lot of help, is of great importance," he said.

"Basically, our cooperation has been developing for a long time, for more than a decade, and is now at its peak. China supports the Russian policy in virtually all areas. With regard to the economy, our economic cooperation is developing actively. Of course, now the trade turnover between our countries has declined slightly due to the poor economic situation, but, in principle, China is our first trading partner. And now, because of the difficulties in the West, our partnership actions are reinforcing further," Alexander Lukin concluded.

As the Deputy Director of the Institute of Asian and African Studies of Moscow State University, Andrey Korneev, said in an interview with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, "the visit is important for various commercial and economic interests but, first of all, it has political-diplomatic and geopolitical importance. The fact is that China for the first time in its history is marking the anniversary of the Victory in the Second World War, and our president will be the chief guest at this celebration. Therefore, it certainly emphasizes the specific dynamics of Sino-Russian relations, emphasizes the new quality of partnership," the expert noted.

He noted that one of the main directions of cooperation between Russia and China is the energy sector. "In May 2014 important gas contracts were signed, and we can see that even in spite of these fluctuations and the volatility in the oil market, the parties have the intention of making this area of ​​cooperation a priority. It is dragging the rest of the trade-economic sphere of Russian-Chinese cooperation like a locomotive," Andrei Korneev concluded.