President Vladimir Putin praised Chinese President Xi Jinping for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) during his second confirmed travel outside the former Soviet Union since the crisis in Ukraine and invited international investment in the Northern Sea route. Putin affectionately addressed Xi as his “dear friend” and praised the Belt and Road Initiative for its contribution to promoting connectivity and cooperation on a global scale.
“Russia and China, like most countries of the world, share the desire for equal, mutually beneficial cooperation in order to achieve universal sustainable and long-term economic progress and social well-being, while respecting the diversity of civilization and the right of each State to its own development model,” Putin stated.
Putin headed a prestigious group from Moscow to the event, having previously attended BRI conferences.
He stressed the opportunity to increase East-West commerce. Putin also conveyed his thanks to Xi for the invitation and emphasized how Russia could make a substantial contribution to China’s modern version of the ancient Silk Road. Chinese President Xi Jinping informed his Russian colleague Vladimir Putin that “China and Russia have maintained close and effective strategic coordination, and bilateral trade volume has reached a historical high,” according to Reuters.
According to Chinese news agency Xinhua, “political mutual trust between the two countries is continuously deepening.”
According to a Reuters witness, a small handful of European delegates, who apparently included former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, left the chamber just before Putin began his speech. The Northern Sea Route, which stretches from Murmansk at Russia’s border with Norway eastward to the Bering Strait in Alaska, is one of many transportation routes that Putin said Russia was building to traverse the world’s largest country.
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