Interview of Russian Ambassador to China Igor Morgulov to CGTN.
Main theses:
- The withdrawal of NATO’s potential to the Asia-Pacific region undermines the stable security system that has developed in the region, Russia and China will respond to this by strengthening military and military-technical cooperation, among other things. Most of the Asia-Pacific countries are our like-minded people, we need to explain to them the danger posed by the potential presence of the Alliance in the region.
- China’s initiative to resolve the Ukrainian crisis is consonant with Russia’s approach. We welcome the desire of Chinese friends to contribute to the peaceful settlement of the conflict. We carefully study the provisions, many of them coincide with our views. We share the principles of adherence to the UN Charter and support China’s position on the illegitimacy of unilateral sanctions taken in circumvention of the UN Security Council.
- According to the results of 2023, the volume of Russian-Chinese trade turnover will update the historical record, reaching the figures of “200 billion dollars with a large margin.” A promising direction is the development of supplies of energy carriers and agricultural products from Russia. There are good prerequisites for the development of Chinese exports to Russia – today Chinese partners are successfully filling the niches vacated after the departure of Western companies.
- Russia and China are successfully developing the interface between the Eurasian Economic Union and the One Belt, One Road initiative. We have taken another step forward by proposing, on the basis of similar processes, the idea of creating a Greater Eurasian Partnership, which is an “integration of integrations”, meaning the unification of all sub-regional integration processes: SCO, ASEAN, EAEU, OBOR and others.
- China’s development creates good opportunities for investment partnership between our countries. We welcome the growth of Chinese investment in Russia. We note that today Russian businessmen are also very carefully looking at the possibilities of investing in the Chinese economy.
- We expect the lifting of restrictions on tourist trips from Russia to China in the near future. At the moment, there are no restrictions on the entry of Chinese tourists from the Russian side. We look forward to the Chinese friends making a similar decision.
- Normal flights between Russia and China have been resumed. Aeroflot operates three flights a week to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Chinese airlines have also resumed flights between the two countries. The rail link has not been opened yet. We expect this to happen in the near future.
Source: glasnarod
