Beijing, Moscow set to further safeguard intl order

Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Russia Today in an interview last month that, "For such major countries and neighbors with global influence as China and Russia, neither alliance nor confrontation is in the fundamental and long-term interests of the two countries and their peoples."

Su Xiaohui, an associate research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, said that friendship for generations and never being an enemy to each other is "an important lesson that China and Russia have learned in their interactions over past decades".

"The two sides are willing to carry on this consensus", as it serves as a cornerstone for advancing the further development of relations between the two countries and "brings more certainty to regional security and world peace", Su said.

She also noted that "the world is glad to see that the two major countries are able to maintain communication, avoid miscalculation, strengthen cooperation and share responsibility".

Last year, the trade volume between the two countries reached $244.8 billion, up 1.9 percent year-on-year.

China has remained Russia's top trade partner for 15 consecutive years, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

The two sides are making solid progress in cooperation in fields including the economy and trade, investment, energy and aerospace, and they are expanding cooperation in emerging fields such as the digital economy, e-commerce, biomedicine, and science and technology innovation, observers said.

"China is willing to continue to contribute to the development of the world economy with Russia," Xiang Bo, Chinese consul general in Kazan, said in an opinion piece published in Russian media on April 9.

He compared China-Russia cooperation to a high-speed train, saying that "while the scenery changes and the weather changes on the way, the direction of the train will not change, and the rhythm of its steady progress will not change".

Feng Shaolei, director of the Center for Russian Studies at East China Normal University in Shanghai, said at a forum in March that "China and Russia both advocate the independent and autonomous management of internal and external relations, and the relationship between the two countries is the mainstay of the world's transformation".

Li Hai, Chinese consul general in Irkutsk, wrote in an article in March that both China and Russia are major countries in science and technology, and they "should firmly advocate global scientific and technological cooperation and fair competition, and oppose technological blockades and scientific and technological bullying".