China Russia Photo: VCG

When senior Chinese military official Zhang Youxia met with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu on Monday on the sidelines of the ongoing 10th Beijing Xiangshan Forum, Zhang said that China stands ready to work with Russia to actively respond to various security threats and challenges and jointly safeguard global strategic balance and stability.

Zhang, vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission, told Shoigu that it is a strategic choice in line with the logic of history to develop China-Russia relations that are characterized by permanent good-neighborly friendship, comprehensive strategic collaboration and mutually beneficial cooperation and a win-win situation, according to the Xinhua News Agency. 

In recent years, under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, China-Russia relations have always been maintained at a high level, and relations between the two militaries are developing strongly, Zhang said. 

Echoing Zhang, Shoigu said that Russia is ready to deepen pragmatic exchanges and cooperation with China and continue to enhance relations between the two countries and the two militaries, per Xinhua's report.

Before meeting with Zhang, Shoigu hailed the "exemplary" inter-state relations between Russia and China, with "traditionally friendly relations maintaining high development dynamics and strengthening in all areas," according to Tass. 

He also slammed the US and its allies for inciting geopolitical tensions to maintain their won hegemony and warned of the risk of direct conflict between nuclear powers, while addressing the Beijing Xiangshan Forum, China's flagship event for military diplomacy. 

Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Monday, "What Shoigu is referring to is that the world is not at peace. And the root cause is that the US, in order to maintain its hegemony and the outdated and ossified order that it represents, is spreading its tentacles around the world and fueling up conflicts."

In contrast, according to Song, the strategic cooperation between China and Russia not only injects peace and stability into the world, but also hopes to change the hegemonic and neocolonial thinking of the Western world, led by the US, and to promote multilateralism and a multipolar world, which China and Russia jointly advocate.

When it comes to the China-Russia strategic connection, Shoigu said on Monday that "the circle of our friends and like-minded people who do not want to be drawn into the confrontational agenda imposed by the collective West constantly expands." 

Under the strategic collaboration between China and Russia, both the SCO and BRICS organizations are growing. Song said, "it is because in the circle of friends created by China and Russia, countries are equal regardless of their size and strength, and solve problems through consultation, while countries in the US-led bloc have almost no right to a voice but only obey Washington's orders." 

The Beijing Xiangshan Forum is also a platform for the vast number of developing countries, so that they can have more say in the international community, Song said. 

Shoigu on Monday slammed the Western policy of steadily escalating the conflict with Russia, saying it carries the threat of a direct military clash between nuclear powers, which is fraught with "catastrophic consequences." He also warned that the US is seeking to spread the potential of conflict to the Asia-Pacific region, and in several directions, after provoking a crisis in Europe, with South Korea and Japan as its vanguards, according to Tass. 

After Europe and the Middle East, the next step is for the US to introduce disaster into the Asia-Pacific region, so that the regional countries can step into the chariot of the "Indo-Pacific Strategy," said Song. "Shoigu is reminding everyone that if the Asia-Pacific is messed up, the world will step into disaster."

China is also hoping to use the Beijing Xiangshan Forum to tell other countries that maintaining peace and stability in the region and the world is the direction that every country should maintain, Song said.