China, Russia to Boost Ties 'At All Levels' in 2023 Despite U.S. Pressure

Determined to thwart the ongoing efforts of the United States to simultaneously counter both of its top rivals, China and Russia have made a joint resolution to increase their cooperation on a variety of fronts in the New Year.

A month and a half after meeting with President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the G20 in a bid to stabilize relations between the two top powers, Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin late last month. While Xi emphasized China's "objective and just" stance on Russia's war in Ukraine, a conflict Beijing has refused to condemn or support, both leaders reiterated their desire to further develop ties throughout 2023.

Putin, for his part, also invited Xi to visit Moscow this spring. Asked about whether such plans were being set in motion, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters Tuesday that, "as comprehensive strategic partners of coordination, China and Russia are committed to building a new type of major-country relations featuring mutual respect and win-win cooperation."

"President Xi Jinping and President Putin have maintained close communication over China-Russia relations and major international and regional issues, and provided strategic guidance for the strategic partnership of coordination," she added. "In the new year, the two sides will strengthen exchanges at all levels and continue to advance the growth of bilateral relations."

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko has argued that this partnership was important for shoring up the defense of their shared vision of global security, especially in the face of threats from the U.S. and its allies.

"The substantial growth of the conflict potential in the world, the latest policy by the United States and its allies aimed at derailing the global security system and their focus on containing the development of our countries have made obvious the need for Russia and our Chinese partners to comprehensively bolster the strategic link between Moscow and Beijing," Rudenko told the state-run TASS Russian News Agency.

This link, he argued, is being made "capable of both resisting Washington's destructive actions and mobilizing the international community's constructive forces for developing new open and just international relations."

"The closer foreign policy coordination between Russia and China based on identical or similar approaches to key world problems has a stabilizing effect on the entire system of international relations, and serves as a catalyst in its gradual transition to a multipolar world," he added, "namely, to a more balanced and stable form of inter-state interaction."

These efforts have played out through such platforms as the jointly led Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the potential of which Rudenko argued was growing in Asia. And "despite its pressure, the West cannot stop this process," the Russian diplomat said.

The nine-nation bloc also includes India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Iran is the most recent addition to the group, having been upgraded to full member during the latest summit in September, while the number of dialogue partners has continued to grow.

During his virtual discussing with Putin, Xi said that China and Russia "need to continue encouraging parties of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to enhance solidarity and mutual trust, show greater mutual support on issues concerning one another's core interests, and jointly resist interference and sabotage by external forces."

Putin said that China-Russia interaction through the SCO, as well as other multilateral platforms such as the U.N. Security Council, BRICS and the G20, "serves to create a fair world order based on international law."

"We share the same views on the causes, course and logic of the ongoing transformation of the global geopolitical landscape," the Russian leader said at the time. "In the face of unprecedented pressure and provocations from the West, we defend our principled positions and protect not only our own interests, but also the interests of all those who stand for a truly democratic world order and the right of countries to freely determine their destiny."

Putin also noted that defense and military technology cooperation "has a special place in the entire range of Russian-Chinese cooperation and our relations," adding that it was the Kremlin's aim "to strengthen cooperation between the armed forces of Russia and China."

U.S. officials have continually raised concerns over the growing ties between China and Russia on various fronts, including military, political and economic affairs.

These concerns were featured prominently in strategy documents released in recent months by the Biden administration. The National Security Strategy, published in October, stated that "the United States for the first time will need to deter two major nuclear powers" in the coming decade, while the Nuclear Posture Review discussed how "a near-simultaneous conflict with two nuclear-armed states would constitute an extreme circumstance" in which nuclear weapons could be used in response to conventional attacks.

Despite Beijing's unwillingness to openly back Moscow's actions in Ukraine, the two powers have continued to bolster their coordination, including in the military realm. Chinese and Russian personnel have been training together with growing frequency, including the "Joint Sea-2022" live-fire naval exercise held just last week in the East China Sea.

Diplomatically, China and Russia have also increasingly formed a united bloc at the U.N. Security Council in recent years, most recently banding together to veto further punitive sanctions against North Korea over recent missile tests. Pyongyang is one of the few nations to have weighed in entirely on Moscow's side in the Ukraine war, and U.S. officials have claimed North Korea has begun supplying Russia with weapons to be used in the conflict, despite denials from both sides.

Coordination in the Pacific between China and Russia has rattled U.S. allies Japan and South Korea, and comes amid simmering tensions over U.S. support for the self-ruling, China-claimed island of Taiwan.

Russia has been the target of an unprecedented campaign of international sanctions led by the U.S., which has made its economic relationship with China increasingly important. Both countries have repeatedly introduced plans to boost bilateral trade volume, and Rudenko said that efforts were underway to restore air and passenger traffic, even as China was experiencing a severe COVID-19 outbreak.

China became Russia's largest trading partner this year as the Western market shrunk for Moscow. Meanwhile, Beijing continues to buy Russian oil and gas, helping to blunt the effect of sanctions imposed by Western nations and their partners.