China, Russia vow to safeguard world prosperity, stability and boost military cooperation as Putin meets senior Chinese military officer

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with senior Chinese military officer Zhang Youxia on Wednesday (local time) in Moscow, with the two sides stressing the importance of safeguarding world prosperity and stability with joined hands. Chinese expert on Thursday said the pair's pragmatic cooperation would inject positivity and certainty into a chaotic world.

During his meeting with Zhang, vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission, Putin noted that the friendly relations between the two countries are conducive to maintaining world and regional peace and stability, "which is completely different from the kind of alliance during the Cold War," Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday.

Cooperation between the two militaries has developed with a sound momentum and achieved fruitful results, Putin told Zhang, and Russia is willing to upgrade the level of practical cooperation between the two countries and the two militaries.

Zhang noted that the friendship between the two sides has "strengthened with time," and the sound relationship between the two militaries serves as an important symbol of the high level and particularity of China-Russia relations.

China stands ready to work with Russia to further strengthen pragmatic cooperation between the two militaries, jointly safeguard the interests of the two countries, and safeguard the prosperity and stability of the world and the region, Zhang said.

One detail of the meeting's arrangements caught many observers's attention. "If you look at the photo of their meeting, you will find Putin and Zhang sitting at a regular conference room table rather than the well-known long table that would normally be used at a high-level foreign affairs event. They were sitting face-to-face quite close to each other," Cui Heng, a scholar from the China National Institute for SCO International Exchange and Judicial Cooperation, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Such an arrangement suggested the closeness and the level of trust between the two countries, Cui noted.

Slamming NATO's bid to expand its reach to the Asia-Pacific in what he described as "an attempt to go beyond its geographic sphere of influence," Putin told Zhang that the cooperation between Russia and China is a "a serious factor stabilizing the global situation," media reports said.

The first trilateral summit among the US, Japan and South Korea was held at the US presidential retreat Camp David this August, which experts believe is a hypocritical anti-China pantomime with a "mini-NATO" in the making, as the US relentlessly tries to use its allies and regional countries to serve its goal of containing and competing with both China and Russia.

Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, explained that by drawing a clear boundary with the Cold War alliance, Putin is emphasizing that the Chinese and Russian militaries do not seek to establish a sphere of influence like the US does.

"Both have their own interests and both are influential global powers, and their cooperation is not based on forming alliances like NATO to protect the common interests of small cliques, but rather to safeguard the interests of all developing countries. This partnership aims to create a multipolar world and maintain global peace and stability," Song told the Global Times on Thursday.

Today's world is in a state of precarious balance, with some major powers withdrawing from nuclear and conventional weapons treaties and conflicts happening in multiple parts of the world. During these chaotic times, the supply of global public security goods has obviously proved insufficient, observers said, in terms of either nuclear and conventional arms control or regional stability mechanisms.

Therefore, to prevent the world from reverting to the "law of the jungle," it is necessary for responsible major powers like China and Russia to work together, highlighting the significance of partnerships in the field of security, Cui noted.

The Wednesday meeting also shed light on cooperation in high-tech spheres, as Putin said that Moscow and Beijing should expand their cooperation on military satellites and other prospective defense technologies.

The military technologies of China and Russia each have their own strengths, and by complementing each other, the whole will be greater than the sum of the parts, enabling both to respond to challenges from certain countries' hegemony, Song said.

There is extensive room for cooperation between the two sides, including aerospace and other high-tech equipment, analysts said, citing examples of naval equipment cooperation, as China's rapid development can help Russia enhance its overall naval combat and support capabilities.

At the same time, Russia has its unique advantages in aviation equipment, such as missile early warning satellites, where China can strengthen cooperation with Russia, experts noted.