Marking the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII this year, a series of joint celebrations by China and Russia will demonstrate the heightened partnership between the two countries and the high recognition of each other, further lifting the bilateral relationship.

Russia will hold military parades in 26 cities to commemorate the anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany. The most significant one on Moscow's Red Square on May 9 will see the attendance of Chinese President Xi Jinping among other foreign leaders. Russian President Vladimir Putin will also come to Beijing to participate in the Chinese festivities marking the anti-fascism victory on September 3.

While it has been a regular practice to hold grand celebrations every five or 10 years for the anniversary, this year is exceptional given the changing international landscape. In both Asia and Europe, there emerges a tendency of denying, distorting or revising history.

The Japanese government has failed to make sufficient atonement for its wartime atrocities and is seeking to revise the pacifist constitution adopted after WWII. And Poland's Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna recently credited Ukrainian troops, rather than the Soviet Red Army, for the liberation of Auschwitz, where the first division to reach the camp was the First Ukrainian Front of the Soviet forces.

In this context, China and Russia are well-positioned to hold celebrations jointly so as to safeguard the fruits of the victory of WWII and postwar international order as they were the two major theaters in Asia and Europe during wartime and made tremendous contributions to victory. The attendance at each other's celebration events by the two leaders shows a heightened bilateral relationship and partnership in remembering the history. As Putin put it in an interview in November, the relations between China and Russia have reached the "highest level of comprehensive equitable trust-based partnership and strategic interaction in their entire history."

The strategic partnership of China and Russia has served the national interests of the two countries to the greatest extent. They have reached consensus or taken similar stances on major bilateral and international issues and the recognition of each other's national identity. This can lead to a smooth solution when problems arise.

There is no denying that lower-level ties in economic, social and cultural exchanges have not developed as dynamically as strategic relations. But leaders of the two countries have realized the lopsidedness, and a series of efforts to narrow the gap can be witnessed.

Last year, China and Russia signed a memorandum of understanding on a high-speed rail between Beijing and Moscow that will cost $230 billion, which will reduce the train travel time from six days to just two days. They also reached a $400 billion deal on gas supply.

There is no perfect consistency on everything between two powers. The China-Russia ties are no exception and they vary on some minor issues. For instance, while the duo insists on the denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, they differ in some specific aspects. They also have their own national interests to take into account in Central Asia, and sometimes competition comes up between the two.

All in all, this won't dent the general picture of the Sino-Russian relationship. While the bilateral ties lie at the optimal phase, they appear in a state much more normal than ever before, with suitable intimacy and also space in between.

On Moscow's invitation list were all the members of the anti-Nazi coalition, which the Soviet Union joined in 1941 after then leader Joseph Stalin's previous pact with Hitler, but three Baltic states - Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia - decided to stay away from the events, citing Russia's stance on the Ukrainian crisis. US President Barack Obama is highly unlikely to go to Moscow for the parade, as White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes suggested. This year's celebrations are designed to remember and show respect to the history of WWII, but it may miss the point if countries view them as a stage to perform the political fights.

The article was compiled by Global Times reporter Sun Xiaobo based on an interview with Li Xing, a professor of Russian and Asian affairs from the School of Government, Beijing Normal University. sunxiaobo@globaltimes.com.cn