Putin says Russia and China will develop relations regardless of the situation in Ukraine

Relations between Russia and China have been developing for a long time and regardless of the situation in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a plenary session of the VTB forum "Russia Calling!" on December 4.

"Our relations with China are developing regardless of the events that are taking place in the Ukrainian direction. China has been our largest trade and economic partner for a long time, before that," the head of state said.

Putin emphasized that Russia has not now turned towards the Global South and East, but has been doing it calmly and gradually since the early 2000s, following the trend of world development. Their share in the world economy is growing, while the share of Western countries is constantly shrinking, the Russian leader pointed out.

He drew attention to the fact that the rate of economic development of some of the developing countries is now twice as high as that of those countries that are considered developed. Therefore, Russia is naturally oriented to where it sees growth and where the number of its partners is increasing, Putin concluded.

Earlier, on November 19, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the strategic relations between Moscow and Beijing are at an unprecedented level of development. Such a model of cooperation between the countries is very attractive for other like-minded states, he noted.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed the opinion back in September that statements about Russia's eastward U-turn against the backdrop of Western sanctions were unfair. He noted that the Asia-Pacific region (APR) has always been a very important direction for Moscow and now this line continues.