Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's video address to participants in the conference The Role of Public Diplomacy in Establishing, Reinstating and Developing Russian-Chinese Relations, Moscow, October 31, 2022
31 October 2022 10:30
2231-31-10-2022
Colleagues, friends,
I would like to cordially greet the organisers and participants of the conference on the role and place of public diplomacy in Russian-Chinese relations. Allow me to congratulate you on the 65th anniversary of founding the Russian-Chinese Friendship Society, the oldest Russian NGO for expanding ties with friendly China.
For 65 years, regardless of political considerations, the society consistently helped strengthen bilateral contacts, including people-to-people contacts. Its leaders and members included prominent state officials, diplomats and representatives of the academic and cultural elite. They made and continue to make a tangible contribution to supporting and maintaining friendship and mutual understanding between both nations in real earnest.
These fruitful efforts deserve profound respect. Russian-Chinese cooperation has now reached unprecedented heights. Efforts to expand such cooperation fully meet the interests of our citizens. It is hard to overestimate the role of our leaders, who strive to strengthen strategic partnership still further, who regularly coordinate their positions and set us new ambitious tasks.
Russian-Chinese cooperation is based on the principles of equality, mutual trust and respect, consideration for each other's interests, as well as on coinciding or largely similar approaches towards topical contemporary issues.
Despite the unstable global situation, our trade and economic interaction continues to develop steadily. We methodically implement bilateral agreements on investment, industry, transport and other areas. We are strengthening our strategic energy partnership. In 2021, bilateral trade volumes hit an all-time high and topped $140 billion. We are expecting to attain new record-breaking indicators by the end of the year.
Today, the collective West is frantically trying to preserve its hegemony, and it is using the most unscrupulous geopolitical engineering methods against Russia and China, which it sees as its main adversaries. In this situation, we together with our Chinese partners closely coordinate our foreign policy actions. The Moscow-Beijing tandem is a key factor of democratising international relations and forging a more equitable multipolar international order.
Firm support for these efforts from the public at large remains an important asset in enhancing the large-scale system of bilateral cooperation. The work of our politicians and diplomats would not be so effective without the assistance of public diplomacy. It has made a weighty and substantial contribution to promoting an objective image of our states and to popularising the best scientific, cultural and artistic achievements of our countries.
I am convinced that the work of your society and other Russian organisations working to expand ties with our Chinese friends will continue to serve the noble goal of passing on the baton of friendship to new generations, as well as strengthening neighbourliness and cooperation between our nations. We will continue to support such activities in the future.
I would like to wish you fruitful work and every success in all your endeavours.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
