Russia sets closer ties with China as overriding priority — defense minister

BEIJING, November 18. /TASS/. Strengthening and expanding ties with China remains, Russia’s overriding priority, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday. “Amid a highly volatile world situation, it becomes particularly important to strengthen reliable good-neighbourly relations between our countries,” Shoigu said at talks with his Chinese counterpart General Chang Wanquan. “This is not only an important factor for security of states but also a contribution to peace and stability on the Eurasian continent and beyond,” he said, adding that “regular private meetings between the leaders of Russia and China give a powerful impetus to development of bilateral partnership”. The minister noted that next year marked the 70th anniversary of the Allied victory in World War Two. “The peoples of our countries took heavy casualties in it,” Shoigu said. “Russia’s and China’s solidarity is of principal importance amid attempts to falsify history and glorify fascism.” A wide range of events is being planned to celebrate this date, both bilaterally and with counterparts from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a security grouping comprising Russia, China and the Central Asian former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Shoigu said. Russia and China also started to regularly hold joint naval and anti-terrorism drills, the minister said, adding that the countries’ military forces “showed a high level of cooperation” during an operation to escort vessels carrying Syria's chemical weapons. Much work was also done by Russian and Chinese sailors during this year’s joint Naval Interaction exercises in the East China Sea, he said. Shoigu stressed that the two countries maintained high level of military and technical cooperation, noting that issues of that cooperation were “under constant review by our heads of state”. Read more