One decade ago, it was at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations that Xi Jinping first put forward the concept of a community with a shared future for humanity in his first overseas trip as president of China.

Ten years on, Moscow has once again welcomed Xi, after he took the oath of office for his third presidential term in early March. He paid the state visit from March 20 to 22 at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin. It was his first overseas trip after being reelected.

China and Russia have enjoyed mutual respect, trust and benefit since his first state visit 10 years ago, Xi said, adding relations between the two countries have grown from strength to strength, showing the features of becoming more comprehensive, practical and strategic.

Under the guidance of the heads of state of the two countries, bilateral relations have moved forward steadily, Li Yonghui, a researcher with the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Beijing Review. 

China and Russia have jointly shaped an institutional cooperation mechanism covering multiple fields. They have strengthened mutual trust in the political and security fields and provided each other with the firmest possible strategic support on issues of core interests and major concerns. At the same time, they have upgraded economic and trade cooperation while transportation and financial connectivity are also improving, Li said, adding "all these show the endogenous power underlying the China-Russia relationship."

Comprehensive partnership

A military band greeted the Chinese leader upon his arrival in the Russian capital on March 20. A motorcade then whisked Xi to the Kremlin, the seat of political power and symbol of Russian nationhood, where he was welcomed by Putin. The two presidents engaged in small-group talks that same evening and the following day embarked on large-group talks before jointly addressing the press.

Xi said China and Russia are each other's biggest neighbor and the consolidation and development of long-term good-neighborly relations with Russia is "consistent with historical logic and a strategic choice of China, which will not be changed by any turn of events."

No matter how the international landscape may change, China will stay committed to advancing the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for the new era, he said, adding his visit to Russia is a journey of friendship, cooperation and peace.

Putin expressed his hopes that both sides will make full use of the existing channels for exchange and work toward achieving new progress in practical cooperation across a range of fields, including economy and trade, outer space and cross-border transportation and logistics, and bring people-to-people and cultural exchanges in sports and tourism and at subnational levels to new heights.

In 2022, Xi and Putin met during the Beijing Winter Olympic Games and announced the launch of the 2022-23 China-Russia Sports Exchange Year. The two countries have since jointly organized a series of events and cooperation between their athletic circles has intensified, according to Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui.

China's national ice hockey, handball and snowboarding teams came to Russia to participate in training while a group of high-level Russian coaches went to China to teach, Zhang said, adding that the Third China-Russia Winter Youth Games also successfully took place in Changchun, Jilin Province in northeast China, from December 16 to 19, 2022.

Every meeting between the two leaders "is a catalyst that can accelerate cooperation," Andrey Kortunov, Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council, told Chinese newspaper Global Times. It is a powerful signal to diplomats, the private sector and others that they should speed up their interactions and upgrade collaborations, he added.

China is ready to work with Russia to build on past achievements, enrich the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for the new era, bring more benefits to the two peoples and better contribute to human progress, Xi said in Moscow.

Following their talks on March 22, the two leaders signed a joint statement on deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for the new era and a joint statement on the pre-2030 development plan on priorities in bilateral economic cooperation.

The first statement makes it very clear that China-Russia relations transcend those of a Cold War military-political alliance and hold the nature of non-alliance, non-confrontation and non-targeting of any third party. This is a clear response to the spiteful hyping by some Western countries and has charted the future course for promoting bilateral ties, Shang Yue, a researcher with the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told Beijing Review.

Practical cooperation

On March 16, a cargo train loaded with 55 containers left Beijing for Moscow, marking the launch of the first direct China-Europe freight train service from the Chinese capital city. Carrying goods such as construction materials, household electrical appliances and clothing, it is currently on track to reach Moscow 18 days after its departure from China.

"With the launch of this freight train service, goods can now be sent directly from Beijing to Europe, reducing logistics costs and boosting transportation efficiency," Chu Yixiao, General Manager of the Beijing-based Taitong International Transportation Co. Ltd., told Xinhua News Agency, adding that the development presents new opportunities for related businesses.

For 13 consecutive years, China has been Russia's largest trading partner. Last year, bilateral trade exceeded $190 billion, a year-on-year increase of 29.3 percent, data from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce showed. In the first two months of this year, their trade volume increased 25.9 percent year on year to $33.69 billion.

Both sides have heightened the synergy between the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a China-proposed initiative that aims to boost connectivity along and beyond the ancient Silk Road routes, and the Eurasian Economic Union, which consists of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia, in recent years.

For example, as an effort to advance connectivity, the first highway bridge connecting China and Russia across the Heilongjiang River, known as the Amur River in Russia, opened to traffic in June 2022. The Blagoveshchensk-Heihe Highway Bridge, with a length of 1,284 meters and a width of 14.5 meters, is a key part of a 19.9-km highway that links the Jilin-Heilongjiang Expressway in northeast China and a highway in Blagoveshchensk, Russia.

As 2023 also marks the 10th anniversary of China's proposal of the BRI, Xi has invited Putin to travel to China for the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation set to take place later this year.

In their joint statement on economic cooperation, both sides propose eight priorities, which cover not only trade, finance and energy, but also bulk commodities and minerals, technology and innovation, plus industrial and agricultural projects.

The first-ever inclusion of bulk commodities as well as mineral resources demonstrates that China and Russia will further expand their practical cooperation, according to Shang. 

Shang said China and Russia need to step up efforts to safeguard global supply and industrial chains, ensure energy security and promote the global energy transformation. "This will boost the development of technology, lift industrial cooperation between the countries and forge a closer, low-carbon and more efficient energy partnership," she added.

The digital economy, green development and biomedicine might play a bigger role in future China-Russia economic and trade cooperation and inject new impetus into the two economies, Zhou Liqun, President of the Union of Chinese Entrepreneurs in Russia, told People's Daily.

Zhou said he looks forward to further investment cooperation between Chinese and Russian enterprises in low-carbon energy and green infrastructure to jointly foster new growth drivers.

Global stability

China and Russia have worked closely on the global stage to firmly oppose all kinds of hegemonism, the Cold War mentality and bloc confrontations, while resolutely safeguarding state sovereignty, security and development interests, Li said.

For both, the practice of true multilateralism means the promotion of greater democracy in international relations and a push for fairer and more reasonable global governance to jointly address global challenges, she explained.

Xi and Putin also had a candid and in-depth conversation about the Russia-Ukraine conflict which has now entered its second year. Xi stressed that a review of history shows that conflicts in the end have to be settled through dialogue and negotiation. China believes that the greater the difficulties, the greater the need to keep space for peace. The more acute the problem, the more important it is not to give up efforts for dialogue. "China will continue to play a constructive role in promoting the political settlement of the Ukraine issue," Xi said.

Putin said Russia has carefully studied China's position paper on the political settlement of the Ukraine issue and is open to peace talks. The country welcomes China to play a constructive role in this regard, he added.