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Medvedev says Russia, China complete each other as they build partnership

The politician also highlighted Beijing's efforts to resolve the Ukrainian crisis

MOSCOW, March 23. /TASS/. Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said he wasn’t concerned that the partnership of Russia and China could be unequal because the countries perfectly complete each other.

He made the statement in response to a question from TASS in an interview with Russian news media and users of the VK social network.

"No alliance is ever absolutely balanced. If we talk about our partnership, our special relations with China, then everything is fine there," Medvedev said. "Yes, China is much larger than we are, in terms of population and economy. But we have our own capabilities, including, for example, our permanent membership in the Security Council (together with China, too) or nuclear capabilities, the size of our country, the colossal reserves of sources of development, and so on. That means each country complements each other there," he said.

Medvedev noted that China "has already become the number one economy in the world."

"Even the Americans have already recognized this. And it’s probably the case not only in terms of purchasing power parity, but also in physical terms," he said.

However, according to Medvedev, the different size of national economies does not prevent harmonious relations.

Chinese President Xi Jinping's "visit confirmed that in the most unequivocal way. It was brilliant: It demonstrated, to put it in the phrases that are usually used, a new level of relations, or the next phase of the strategic partnership and interaction between Russia and China. Our Chinese friends like such metaphorical phrases, but this is exactly the case," the politician said.

Medvedev also highlighted Beijing's efforts to resolve the Ukrainian crisis.

"China brought a settlement plan for Ukraine. Our president said yesterday: ‘Yes, there are a lot of interesting things there.’ In order to implement any plan, you just need a desire to study it not only in our country, but also at least in Washington and Kiev, and this is not the case now," he said. "But if we describe our relations in general, they are at an all-time high. And I don’t see any problems in these relations in the foreseeable future," Medvedev said.