Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed the document during the latters visit to the Asian nation

Russia and China have issued a new communique on the countries' growing relations, following Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin's visit to Hangzhou, where he met with his Chinese counterpart, Li Qiang.

In the communique issued on Tuesday, both sides pledged to expand cooperation across multiple spheres and jointly respond to external challenges. They vowed to provide firm mutual support on issues affecting their core interests, and called for deeper ties in areas including science, technology, agriculture, trade, ecology, investment, and AI.

The two also agreed to strengthen cultural and people-to-people exchanges, promote visa-free travel, and boost integrated development in tourism and border-city cooperation. They pledged to promote peace and stability in the Arctic and deepen cooperation in space exploration.

Russia reaffirmed its adherence to the One-China policy, recognizing Taiwan as an integral part of China, and reiterated its support for Beijing's efforts toward national reunification. China expressed support for Russia's efforts to safeguard its security, stability, and sovereignty.

Both sides vowed to strengthen cooperation within multilateral frameworks such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, BRICS, and the UN, as well as within international bodies - to counter the "politicization" of their work and promote a fair, multipolar world and inclusive economic globalization.

China and Russia have increasingly presented themselves as advocates of multipolarity, arguing that global power should be shared more evenly rather than dominated by the US and its allies.

Beijing has refused to support Western sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine conflict, instead expanding trade with Moscow. From 2020 to 2024, bilateral trade nearly doubled, surpassing $240 billion last year, according to Chinese customs data. The two nations have been reducing reliance on the US dollar, with 99.1% of settlements conducted in their national currencies this year, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov revealed on Tuesday.

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Beijing earlier proposed a 12-point plan for resolving the Ukraine conflict peacefully - a proposal Moscow praised at the time as "the most reasonable" approach to ending the hostilities.

(RT.com)