Mikhail Mishustin has expressed confidence the Moscow-Beijing partnership will prevail in today’s new geopolitical reality
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin © Getty Images / Anadolu Agency
Western countries using illegitimate means to bully others into playing by their rules are ultimately doomed to fail, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said during a video conference with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Monday.
“The global world order is undergoing a serious transformation,” Mishustin observed, adding that some Western countries have decided to use illegitimate economic sanctions, restrictions and political pressure in an effort to impose their own rules, while completely dismissing the interests of other nations.
“Such attempts are doomed to failure,” the prime minister remarked.
He went on to state that Russia’s strategic partnership with China, on the other hand, was bound to succeed and would “reveal its great creative potential” in the changing geopolitical landscape. His comments came at the 27th annual meeting between heads of government from Moscow and Beijing.
Mishustin also said Russia was willing to fulfill all of its contractual obligations related to energy deliveries to China and is ready to work on new and more extensive projects in that sphere.
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Previously, Russia and China had agreed to conduct energy transactions using national currencies instead of the US dollar. Nearly half of all trade between the two countries is now done using the Russian ruble or the Chinese yuan, Mishustin announced.
He stated that this is “precisely” how trade should be done according to the logic of sovereign economic and financial policies in a multipolar world.
The prime minister reported that in the past ten months, trade between Russia and China had reached double-digit growth rates and has increased by nearly a third, approaching $150 billion, and is projected to exceed $200 billion in the near future.
While Beijing has expressed reservations about Moscow’s military campaign against Kiev, it has maintained a largely neutral stance on the conflict and has refused to join Western sanctions on Russia. Chinese diplomats have continued to call for a peaceful resolution and have criticized the West’s efforts to pump more weapons into the region, arguing it only serves to prolong hostilities.
Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi declared last month that Beijing is ready to work with Russia and “other like-minded countries to promote the development of a multipolar world.”
