WASHINGTON, November 23. /TASS/. The US administration believes that Moscow and Beijing have maintained forward momentum in their bilateral relationship, First Deputy US Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said, adding that it is expected to continue.
"I'm not sure that we could have averted or dented or disrupted this growing [Russia-China] alliance, but we tried and at an ultimate level, China and Russia had chosen this path together in ways that will animate global politics that are only now coming into view," he said at a seminar at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies (this organization’s activities are recognized as undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation).
Moscow and Beijing "have maintained forward momentum in their bilateral relationship," the diplomat noted, adding that he "expects that to continue."
In 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping, then Vice President, "comes on the scene internationally," he said. "We begin to see a much deeper engagement by both leaders, by Xi [Jinping] and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to meet and engage. I think we underestimated that," Campbell said, adding that Putin and Xi Jinping "believe they have a lot to offer to one another."
"You can go through a whole host of capacities that have been built up quietly, deeply beneath the surface, between China and Russia, and it has changed the nature of the battlefield in fundamental ways. And it not only changes Russia's stance on the Ukrainian battlefield, but for decades to come, it's going to create facts on the ground in Russia that we're going to have to deal with, the fact that China has chosen this path," the diplomat stressed.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on November 19 that the meeting between Xi Jinping and Putin during the BRICS Summit in Kazan laid the strategic foundation for the next level of the development of bilateral relations, adding that China is ready to work with Russia to further strengthen cooperation and cohesion, contribute to the steady development of the Sino-Russian comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination, and support the development and rebirth of their countries and the reform of the global governance system.