Ahead of his upcoming visit to China to participate in celebrations dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Victory in World War II and Victory in the War against Japan, Russian President Vladimir Putin was interviewed by Russia’s TASS and China’s Xinhua news agencies.
– This year marks 70 years since the victory over Nazism in World War II. Both your father and the father of China’s President Xi Jinping fought in that war. Your memories of the war are both your personal, family memories and the memories of the whole nation. After Xi Jinping’s spring visit to Moscow to attend the events commemorating the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, you will make a visit to Beijing to attend the grand military parade marking the victory in the War of Resistance against the Japanese invaders. What do you think is the importance today of commemorating the victory in WWII and those historic events? What is your assessment of the contribution of the Chinese people’s War of Resistance against the Japanese invaders to the overall victory against Nazism?
– True, for Russia and China this Victory anniversary has a special significance. The Soviet Union achieved it through enormous sacrifice. The people of China also bore great losses. We will never forget heroism, courage and spiritual strength of the generation of victors. We will forever remember the fallen and honour the veterans.
Our two countries were allies in the fight against Nazism and Japanese militarism and bore the brunt of the aggression, and they not only withstood this battle, but won it, liberating enslaved peoples and bringing peace to the planet.
Such mutual support between the Soviet and the Chinese people in those years of trial, our common historical memory serve as a strong foundation for present-day relations between Russia and China.
Today, both in Europe and in Asia, we witness the attempts to falsify the history of World War II, to promote loose and distorted interpretations of the events that are not based on facts, particularly events of the pre-war and post-war periods. Efforts by certain countries to glorify and exonerate war criminals and their henchmen are an outrageous flouting of the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials. This is an outright insult to the memory of millions who fell in the war. The goal of such historical speculations is obvious: they are used in shady geopolitical games with the purpose of sowing feud between countries and peoples.
Russia and China maintain similar views on the causes, history and results of World War II. For our peoples its memory and its lessons are sacred. This tragic past is an appeal to our common responsibility for the fate of the world, to the realisation of the terrible consequences a destructive ideology of personal exclusiveness and all-permissiveness could lead to. These are the ideas that Nazism and militarism thrived on. It is our duty to prevent their revival and spreading.
Therefore, it is extremely important that our two countries are united in their striving to further preserve historical truth and defend our common Victory. Our joint celebrations of the 70th anniversary of Victory in World War II clearly illustrate this commitment of ours.
– How do you see relations between Moscow and Beijing in the current international situation? Can Russia and China assist in building a new world order and if so, what should it be based on, in your view?
– Unfortunately, the international situation is growing increasingly unpredictable. The creation of a new polycentric model is accompanied by growing regional and global instability. The main reason for such a tense and complicated situation is the deficit of attempts to reach compromise.
Russian-Chinese ties have now probably reached a peak in their entire history and continue developing. The partnership between Russia and China is based on sincere friendship and sympathy between our peoples, on deep respect and trust, consideration for each other’s key interests and commitment to make our countries flourish.
It is in this vein that we work together in the UN, the G20, as well as within BRICS and the SCO, which have successfully held their summits in Ufa this July. The Russia-China connection played an important part in resolving such acute issues as the withdrawal of chemical weapons from Syria and an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program.
Expansion of the Russian-Chinese partnership meets the interests and strategic goals of our two countries. This is what guided us when we adopted in May the current Joint Declaration on cooperation in coordinating development of the Eurasian Economic Union and the Silk Road Economic Belt. This is the beginning of a process of coordinating our long-term development priorities to give a strong impetus to economic activity on the vast expanses of Eurasia.
– Trade and economic relations between Russia and China are generally on the rise. Can the countries achieve the target of doubling trade turnover they have set for themselves earlier? What areas do you consider most promising here?
– Since 2010, China has been Russia’s leading trade partner. In 2014, despite unfavourable trends in global economy, we managed to maintain our trade turnover, which reached around $88.4 billion.
Energy remains the key area here. Our countries are consistently moving towards the creation of a strategic energy alliance that, I am sure, will play a significant role in international economic relations.
In 2014, we made a real breakthrough in gas industry. In May of last year, during my visit to China, we signed a contract for annual supplies to China of 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas. It will be shipped via the ‘eastern’ route for 30 years. To implement the project, we have already launched the construction of the Power of Siberia gas pipeline. In May of this year, we reached initial agreement on the ‘western’ route, with anticipated exports of 30 billion cubic meters a year. The implementation of these large-scale projects is our absolute priority for the near future.
We are also making significant progress in other areas of energy cooperation. We have built and began operating an oil pipeline from Russia to China, we signed agreements to increase oil shipments, created joint ventures to explore and produce oil in this country. Chinese companies have joined gas projects on the Russian Arctic shelf and the Sakhalin shelf. There are good prospects for joint development of coalfields in the Far East.
We highly value our Chinese partners’ intention to send a strong delegation that will include businessmen from over a hundred leading energy, mining, transport, agricultural, machine building and other companies, as well as representatives from major financial institutions, the central authorities and governors. We expect them to be especially active at the forum.
– You said earlier that you have special feelings for China. Since you were elected for your first term as President in 2000, you have now visited China as the Russian leader 13 times. What changes that you noticed during those visits impressed you most? What do you think about China’s development?
– As you have fairly noted, I was lucky to watch China ‘on the move’ over a number of years. With every visit, I noted that your country was growing more economically powerful, achieving new targets in building a modern infrastructure and in social development.
At the same time, China is showing great care for its cultural and historic traditions. Everyone who visits your wonderful country feels this practically everywhere. Cultural heritage sites are of special importance, reflecting the full measure of the ancient Chinese civilization. My trip to the Shaolin monastery during my visit in 2006 was unforgettable.
The development road China has covered over these years is a path of successful economic reform and wise social policy. This experience is of great value for us. Therefore, even with all the differences between Russia and China, we are facing common development targets, such as changing the structure of the economy to favour high technology sectors. Russia and China also have very similar industrial priorities: these are nuclear energy, space exploration, new information technologies, environmental protection, energy saving, production of high technology medicines and medical equipment, and some other.
Our two countries have an enormous potential for closer business cooperation and active humanitarian ties. More importantly, we are prepared to make use of all these opportunities; we see mutual interest and trust between us grow and friendly ties become stronger. There is a lot we can achieve on this basis. And I am sure we will.