On May 16, a seminar on Sino-Russian Cooperation and Future “Belt and Road” Initiative, and Release of Sino-Russia-Kazakhstan Think Tank Joint Report on the theme of “Reshaping Eurasian Space: Common Perspectives from China, Russia and Kazakhstan Think Tanks”, were held in Beijing.

The seminar was hosted by Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China (RDCY) and Valdai Discussion Club of Russia, and organized by RDCY. The participants included experts and scholars from China and Russia such as He Yafei, Former Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ministry, currently a Senior Fellow of RDCY and Director of Global Governance Research Center at Renmin University of China (GGRC), Wang Wen, the Executive Dean of RDCY, and Timofei Bordachev, Director of Eurasia Project of Valdai Discussion Club.

He Yafei makes an opening remarks.

During the opening remarks, He yafei said that it is the first time that think tanks from China, Russia and Kazakhstan released a joint report of this kind. The report was inspired by the “Belt and Road”, which comes from China, but belongs to the world. He said that international cooperation is essential to countries’ success and Eurasia is the last continent that has great potential for substantial economic growth. But economic growth needs to be ensured by the unity and solidarity between major powers, especially between China and Russia. The report presents the challenges that the two countries face and the opinions that they have, he noted.

Wang Wen delivers a keynote speech at the seminar.

Wang Wen delivered a keynote speech at the seminar. He said that China and Russia are “real friends” and Sino-Russia relations would develop well in the future. At the same time, China and Russia still faced many challenges in deepening cooperation among different fields. Then he made some concreted suggestions for improving Sino-Russion relations, such as protecting free trade between two countries, enhancing infrastructure construction, deepening economic cooperation, boosting multi-level communication, and strengthening cooperation against non-traditional threats.

 Timofei Bordachev delivers speech.

Timofei Bordachev said that China’s “Belt and Road” initiative can well connect with Russia’[s Eurasian Economic Union, which promotes the standardization. He noted that “Belt and Road”  contributes to the security of Russia because the initiative can create jobs and promote political stability in the Central Asian Region.

In the following session of the think tank dialogue, some experts including Liu Zhiqin, senior fellow of RDCY, Andrey Sushentsov, project director of Valdai Discussion Club, Wang Xianju, Deputy Director of RUC-SPBU Joint Center for Russian Studies, and Yang Fuding, assistant researcher of GGRC, gave their views on the Sino-Russian cooperation and future development of "Belt and Road" initiative.

Report: Reshaping Eurasian Space: Common Perspectives from China, Russia and Kazakhstan Think Tanks