Speaking in an interview with the website of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations about China-Russian relations in recent years, Seyed Reza Mirtaher said: Such relations have been developing rapidly in recent years, and this issue with regard to the interests of both sides in expanding bilateral relations and the existence of a common enemy or rival, that is to say the United States, makes sense.

He stressed that the United States has always mentioned China and Russia in its upstream documents as revisionist powers that their expansionist demands should be countered. Of course, China, as the world’s second largest economy which will be turned into the first economy of the word by 2030, is not only a rival to the United States in terms of trade, economy and advanced technologies, but due to its growing military development and expansion of its arsenal of offensive weapons, from the Americans’ point of view has created a great security threat in the Pacific region for Washington and its allies.

According to Mirtaher, given this sense of danger by the United States, we are witnessing formation of coalitions and Washington’s efforts to form new alliances across the Indo-Pacific region, of which reference can be made to the Quad alliance between the United States, Japan, Australia and India, and the AUKUS alliance between the United States, Britain and Australia noted.

The international affairs expert, stating that the Americans have also confronted Russia, explained: Although Russia is the largest country in the world, it is more important militarily and is not economically a rival to the United States.

He continued: Beijing and Moscow, due to the growing confrontation of the previous and current US administrations with those two countries, have naturally become closer to each other and have established relations in various political, diplomatic, economic, trade, energy, security and military fields.

Referring to the recent meeting between the presidents of the two countries, Mirtaher said: Within the framework of the recent meeting between Putin and Xi Jinping, we saw that the leaders of the two countries issued a joint statement, which is considered as very important in its kind. The statement addresses the concerns of Moscow and Beijing, particularly in developing the world’s multipolar system and countering the US unilateralist policies. At the same time, the security concerns of Russia and China have been addressed in this joint statement.

He continued: The United States, especially after the end of the Cold War and until recently, has always claimed that as the only superpower in the world, it should play a decisive role in elucidating international policies and systems. Russia and China, on the other hand, do not accept the liberal order of the international system that the West now seeks to perpetuate and consolidate.

According to the expert, Moscow and Beijing believe that developments in the international system, especially in the world economy, trade and finance, with the emergence of the new economic powers, as well as increasing the role and importance of countries such as China, India, Russia, Brazil, South Africa, which form the BRICS group, and other realities on the world stage have necessitated a kind of revision of the current international system and its structures and processes.

Mirtaher further emphasized: Russia and China have also taken some practical measures in this context, one of the important manifestations of which is the formation of the BRICS group, which includes emerging economies and non-Western powers. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is another manifestation of China-Russian cooperation.

The expert stressed that the issue of NATO development eastward, which has now become one of the main axes of the conflict between Russia and the West, including NATO and the United States, was also discussed in the joint statement, and both Putin and Xi Jinping condemned the actions of the West.

He continued: Naturally, for China, the military adventures of the United States and its partners in the Indo-Pacific region are of great importance; in particular, the US military actions to challenge China’s naval claims in the South China Sea, as well as its provocative actions in support of Taiwan and the Beijing threat, are among the main concerns of Chinese leaders.

Mirtaher finally explained that Russia and China, with regard to the sanction approach and escalation of pressure from the West, led by the United States, intend to focus more on bilateral relations or overlapping reciprocal needs which includes the issue of exporting 10 billion cubic meters of gas to China and Russia’s efforts within the framework of the East-facing policy.

Referring to the point that before 2014, the European Union was Russia’s largest trading partner, he said: But now the Russians are trying to define their trade, economic and energy interests and relations in the East and this issue that the 21^st century was called the Pacific Ocean or the Pacific Age, also means that in this century, the axis of world economy and trade will be the Asia-Pacific region. Therefore, from this perspective, Russia’s view is based on the facts that have occurred in the world arena.

Mirtaher stressed that Beijing and Moscow are in fact seeking to establish the fact that the West must abandon its role of hegemony in the international arena in the political-diplomatic, economic-commercial, military-security spheres and accept the global realities and emergence of new powers.