Even military secrets are not off the table, the Russian president has suggested
Russian President Vladimir Putin at the ‘Russia Calling!’ forum on December 7, 2023. © Sputnik / Sergey Guneev
Russia’s current relationship with China allows for full-spectrum cooperation in the tech sector, including with regards to its military applications, President Vladimir Putin told a Chinese entrepreneur on Thursday during a panel discussion at VTB Bank’s ‘Russia Calling!’ forum.
The remark was part of Putin’s answer to a question about US sanctions policy, which includes a ban on export of certain technologies to some nations, which, the Chinese businessman suggested, was forcing them to “reinvent the bicycle”. The Russian leader said such restrictions were not viable in the long run even before the world became profoundly interconnected.
“No matter how much people tried to guard the secret of black powder, it became the province of all mankind, for good or for worse,” Putin mused.
The same was true during the Cold War, when the US and its allies were heavily regulating trade with the Eastern bloc through the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (CoCom), Putin said. Those efforts halted the development of the USSR, but the country managed achieve its key goals nevertheless, he noted.
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Washington’s current policies are meant to preserve its dominant status, the Russian president claimed, but “if we act across the board, supporting and helping each other, no restrictions by whoever tries to keep its advantage can stop us.”
As for China specifically, Russia is ready to cooperate in every area, Putin assured.
“We have no limits. This includes the military sphere,” he said. “When it comes to security, we are moving away from the traditional ‘buy-sell’ kind of relationship. We think about the future, about technologies.”
The US considers both Russia and China strategic rivals. Washington has banned the export of advanced semiconductors produced using American technology to China as part of its Asia strategy, which Beijing perceives as an attempt to contain the nation.
