Focus on Eurasia
G Iuvinale
Russia aims to further strengthen its comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation with China, Russia's new Foreign Policy Concept said on Friday.
Russia prioritizes the development of mutually beneficial cooperation with China in all areas, providing mutual assistance and strengthening coordination in the international arena to ensure security, stability, and sustainable development at the global and regional levels, the document said.
In addition, Russia strives to improve the infrastructure of an international transport corridor connecting Europe with western China and develop the Russia-Mongolia-China economic corridor, it said.
The Foreign Policy Concept was approved by President Vladimir Putin in a decree (No. 229, March 31, 2023) signed on Friday to replace the 2016 version. The document came into force immediately.
Getting out of the cold war, making way for the "hybrid war".
The new foreign policy doctrine designates the West as an "existential threat" whose "domination" Moscow must fight. The adoption of this new strategy confirms the deep rift existing between Russia and Western countries since the beginning of the assault on Ukraine, which has led NATO to consolidate and Moscow to turn to China.
During a meeting of his National Security Council, President Vladimir Putin justified these changes with "upheavals on the international scene" forcing Russia to "adapt its strategic planning documents." The new doctrine notes "the existential nature of the threats (...) created by the actions of hostile countries" and designates the United States as "the main instigator and conductor of the anti-Russian line", summed up the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, adding:
“In general, the West's policy of weakening Russia by any means is characterized as a new type of hybrid warfare."
It is also written in the document
“Russia intends to pay priority attention to eliminating the remnants of the dominance of the United States and other hostile states in world affairs."
Putin had shown his complicity with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at a summit in Moscow in early March, touting the "special nature" of relations between their countries, which nonetheless seem increasingly biased in favor of Beijing. The new doctrine also assigns a significant place to relations with African countries.
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