Moscow must balance its ties with both Beijing and Washington, a top Russian official said, highlighting the emergence of a new geopolitical dynamic between President Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping and Donald Trump.
“As to the relationship between Russia, China and the United States, we should not develop a relationship with one other country at the expense of another and vice versa,” Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk told an audience Friday at the Boao Forum in the southern Chinese province of Hainan.
Overchuk reiterated a common Kremlin line that, despite pressure from sanctions, the Russian economy is showing “strong resilience,” and is expanding its range of partnerships, including with China, to mitigate the impact.
“We are the world’s champion on sanctions,” he said, prompting laughter in the room.
Russia’s relationship with China is a “very fast developing” one, he said, citing rising trade figures between the two countries as an example. Putin and Xi declared a “no limits” partnership just before the Ukraine war started, and they have tightened relations since then.
“There’s a desire on both sides to explore opportunities for expanding those ties because both nations are experiencing outside pressures,” Overchuk said. “And naturally we look for ways of how to cooperate and work together to improve the living standard of people in our countries.”
“Russian food is extremely popular in China,” he added. “And that’s a huge market — believe me.”
When asked whether Russia is open to China committing peacekeeping troops as part of an Ukraine peace settlement — an idea floated by some Chinese military experts — Overchuk said that question would be better for the country’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.
Overchuk said the future of BRICS — a group of 10 emerging economies — was “fine,” even after Trump threatened to impose a 100% tariff on member countries if they abandon the dollar for international trade. He accused the previous US administration of “weaponizing the dollar.”
“They stopped our access to the international payment system,” he said. “We didn’t start it.”
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