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Common Aspirations of Chinese and Russian Peoples: Commentary
On July 16, Chinese President Jiang Zemin on a State visit to Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin jointly signed a good-neighborly treaty of friendship and cooperation in the Kremlin, Moscow, this is a major event of epoch-making significance and far-reaching influence in the history of Chinese-Russian relations.
The guiding spirit of the treaty is that the two countries and the two peoples "will be friendly to each other from generation to generation and will never make each other enemies".
The firm will of the two sides always to be good neighbors, good partners and good friends has been fixed in a legal form, which has given full expressions to the sincere wishes and common aspirations of the Chinese and Russian people and will thus receive the heartfelt endorsement and support from the two peoples.
The formal signing of the treaty marks the entry of the Chinese-Russian strategic cooperative partnership featuring equality and mutual trust into a new stage.
Over the past decade, China and Russia have advanced from "regarding each other as friendly countries" to "constructive partnership" and then to "strategic cooperative partnership featuring equality, mutual trust and orientation toward the 21st century", heads of State of the two countries have signed 10-plus joint statements and declarations, thus defining a series of important principles for constantly strengthening, deepening and substantiating bilateral relations.
The "China-Russia Good-Neighborly Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation is a masterly generalization and refining of these principles, it is a programmatic document guiding the long-term, healthy and steady development of China-Russian relations in the 21st century.
The China-Russia Good-Neighborly Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation comes straight to the point, in the Preamble it makes clear to the world: China and Russia "firmly believe that consolidating friendship, good neighborliness, mutual benefit and cooperation between the two countries in various fields conforms to the fundamental interests of the two peoples, helps safeguard peace, security and stability of Asia and the world at large, they reaffirm the obligations they respectively undertake in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other international treaties they have acceded to, hope to promote the establishment of a just and reasonable international new order based on abiding by the principles and norms of the universally acknowledged international law, devote efforts to raising the relations between the two countries to a brand new level and are determined to carry the friendship between the two peoples from generation to generation."
The Treaty consists of 25 articles, the main contents include: In line with the principles and norms of the universally acknowledged international law and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, the two sides will develop, in a long-term and comprehensive way, a strategic cooperative partnership featuring good neighborliness, friendship, cooperation, equality and trust between the two countries; in their mutual relations, they refrain from the use of force or threat of force, nor will they mutually adopt economic and other means for application of pressure, they will solve differences between them by peaceful means, they reiterate that they will not be the first to use nuclear weapons against each other and not to target the other side with strategic nuclear missiles; they show mutual respect for the road of political, economic, social and cultural development chosen by the other side in light of its national conditions; they mutually support the other side's policies taken to safeguard national unification and territorial integrity.
The Russian side acknowledges that there is only one China in the world, the government of the People's Republic of China is the only legal government representing the whole of China, Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, the Russian side opposes any form of "Taiwan independence"; the two sides are determined and devote active efforts to building the boundary between the two countries into a boundary of lasting peace and friendship for generations to come, in accordance with the current agreement, they will adopt measures to strengthen trust in the military field of and reduce military forces along the border regions; they mutually refrain from participating in any actions that harm the other side's sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, neither side shall allow a third country to use its territory to harm the other side's State sovereignty and territorial integrity.
In addition, the Treaty also specifies the basic framework for both sides to develop comprehensive and pragmatic cooperation in the political, economic and trade, science and technology, humanism, environmental protection, judicial as well as international affairs and other realms.
The China-Russia Good-Neighborly Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation is a legalization of a new state-to-state relationship constructed jointly by leaders of the two countries, the essential characteristic of such relations is non-alignment, non-confrontation and not directed against a third country, its basic purpose is to realize long-term good-neighborliness, friendship, equality, trust, mutual benefit and cooperation, and common development. There is no need for reticence that Chinese-Russian relationship has gradually advanced toward maturation only after experiencing decades of trials and hardships.
Historically, China had ties of alignment with the former Soviet Union and there had been long-term confrontation between them, practice has proved that the two are not the best choices. The special geographical link between China and Russia living neighboring to each other is destined that the two countries have many meeting points of interests.
At present, both China and Russia are faced with the heavy tasks of internally developing the economy, safeguarding national unity and externally defending independence and sovereignty, maintaining their respective international positions and legitimate rights and interests they deserve.
The establishment, consolidation and development of the China-Russian new relationship of large countries are the inevitable choice jointly made by the two sides on the basis of summing up historical experiences and lessons and with the highest national interest as the starting-point, it is a long-term strategic arrangement featuring a broad and long view and facing the future, it both tallies with the pressing desires and fundamental interests of the two peoples and conforms to the post-Cold War trends of the world desiring for peace, stability and development, therefore it has a solid foundation and strong vitality.
The birth of the China-Russia Good-Neighborly Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation can be regarded as pioneering undertaking in the history of current international relationship, its active influence has gone far beyond the scope of the relations between the two countries.
This is manifest mainly in the following aspects: First, its rich contents do not contradict the purposes of the Charter of the United Nations and the norms of other publicly acknowledged international law; second, the security concept it embodies with mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and cooperation as the core thoroughly discards the old mode of Cold War mentality and group policies, it serves as a successful example for the establishment of a new State relationship; third, the Treaty puts forward many common, unanimous views on current major international issues, indicating that the two countries will maintain closer ties of consultation and coordination in international affairs. For example, both sides "stand for strict observance of the principles and norms of the publicly acknowledged international law, oppose any acts of interfering in the internal affairs of a sovereign State by the use of force to apply pressure or under various pretexts", and "oppose acts that may cause threat to international stability, security and peace", "make concerted efforts to maintain global strategic balance and stability ', "actively expedite the process of nuclear disarmament", "strengthen cooperation in the United Nations and its Security Council and the special agencies of the United Nations", "guarantee the main responsibilities of the United Nations Security Council in the realm of safeguarding international peace and security", "vigorously promote and strengthen the stability in the surrounding regions of the two countries, stimulate efforts designed to establish, in the above-mentioned regions, a multilateral cooperative mechanism relating to the issue of security and cooperation that conform to its realities. etc.
China and Russia upgrade their strategic cooperative partnership to a higher level, this is conducive to promoting the process of the world multi-polarization, to the establishment of a fair and reasonable international new order and to the maintenance of world peace.
The China-Russia treaty gives the two countries' strategic cooperative partnership a long-term and stable nature, the basic orientation it fixes for such relations will not change with the change in the domestic situation of the two countries and the international situation.
It can be foreseen that under the guidance of the Treaty, the strategic cooperative relations of the two countries will gain even richer fruit. The two peoples of China and Russia will forever become good neighbors, good partners and good friends. The tree of friendship of the Chinese and Russian peoples will definitely be evergreen for generations to come!
This commentary, written by Our Staff Reporter Liu Shuiming, is carried on Page 3 of People's Daily July 17
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