Chinese President Xi Jinping held a video meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday. They issued a joint statement and announced to extend the China-Russia Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation. Article 9 of the treaty, which was signed in July 2001, says “When a situation arises in which one of the contracting parties deems that… it is confronted with the threat of aggression, the contracting parties shall immediately hold contacts and consultations in order to eliminate such threats.”
Western media outlets often describe China-Russia relations as a “quasi-alliance.” But neither China nor Russia has ever officially accepted such a description. They define their ties as partnership, rather than alliance. They both reiterate that their relations are at the best in history and are a model for intergovernmental relations in the 21th century.
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