BEIJING, February 5. /TASS/. Chinese experts think that ties established between Moscow and Beijing facilitate the beginning of a new era in international relations where the role of the US won’t be exclusive or defining. This opinion of Chinese political scientists and foreign affairs experts was presented by the Global Times on Saturday.

"The solidarity between China and Russia gives a new definition to the world order, as they share the common knowledge about where the major threats to the global stability come from," Lu Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the newspaper. He added that "in the face of US hegemony," China and Russia remain the only countries "that have the capability to safeguard their core interests and sovereignty."

Zhang Hong, an Eastern European studies expert from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, thinks that following the end of the Cold War, China and Russia have gradually found a development model suitable for their national conditions, "while abandoning the West-led Washington Consensus because they saw its inherent defects, which prompted China and Russia to be more vocal on a pluralistic global order."

"The US is now touting its Cold War mentality and so-called China threat theory in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the so-called Russia threat theory in Europe, which prompted China and Russia to stand up against such zero-sum mentality," the expert said.

On February 4, before the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, a meeting was held between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Following the meeting, both leaders signed a joint statement on a number of cooperation issues.

For instance, it mentions that China and Russia "oppose the further expansion of NATO and called on the North Atlantic Alliance to abandon its ideologized Cold War approaches, to respect the sovereignty, security and interests of other countries, the diversity of their civilizational, cultural and historical backgrounds, and to exercise a fair and objective attitude towards the peaceful development of other states." Additionally, Moscow and Beijing expressed concern over the trilateral security partnership between Australia, the US, and the UK (AUKUS) which implies deeper cooperation between its members on spheres involving strategic stability.