The 4th Eastern Economic Forum was successfully closed in Vladivostok, Russia on September 13. On the one hand, the Chinese and Russian heads of state once again cordially interacted with each other and reached agreements in terms of regional stability, economic and trade cooperation, which gives powerful strength to the development of China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination. However, on the other hand, in the context of de-globalization, protectionism unilateralism, risks and opportunities coexist. China and Russia play vital roles in maintaining peace of the world.

Therefore, whether the China-Russia relationship will continue to heat up and move toward the direction of “quasi-ally” in the future or not? How to synergize "The Belt and Road Initiative " with "Eurasian Economic Union "? For this reason, Mr. Sergey Glaziev, Counsellor to the President of the Russian Federation Putin, delivered a lecture at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China (RDCY) with the theme of “Russian and Chinese Eurasian Partnership in the unstable world: technological, economic, institutional, and financial dimensions”, sharing his unique insights on China-Russia relationship on September 20.

The forum was hosted by Wang Wen, Executive Dean of the RDCY. He first extended a warm welcome to the arrival of Graziev. He said, Professor Graziev has visited RDCY for many times over the past few years, which is in sync with the steady improvement of Sino-Russian relations. Wang gave high praises for Graziev’s contribution to the promotion of political mutual trust, think tanks exchange and people-to-people bonds between China and Russia.

In the lecture, Professor Graziev appreciated RDCY’s invitation, and expected to take advantage of the think tank platform to consolidate policy communication and academic exchanges between China and Russia. He emphasized that China and Russia have a high degree of political mutual trust, which has played an effective role in safeguarding the economic development of the two countries and communication in other fields. He said that in the 21st century, economic and political exchanges between the two countries have reached new heights. Russian President Putin attached great importance to the cooperation with China. Especially in the construction of Russia-China strategic mutual trust and all-round strategic partnership, President Putin has devoted a lot of efforts and gave high hopes.

Grazyev noted that China and Russia should strengthen bilateral cooperation to realize the connection of the two major initiatives proposed by two countries, namely "Eurasian Economic Union" and "Belt and Road Initiative”, especially enhance the cooperation of large-scale projects between enterprises to guarantee the strategies implementation. In order to support the connection of the two countries' policies, Graziev stressed that scholars of the two countries should continue to deepen their academic research and exchanges in the relevant fields, which are also important directions in accordance with his team's efforts in the future.

In response to the strategic squeeze and the "bullying" of the economy imposed by the United States on China and Russia, Graziev made it clear that in order to counter the US approaches in destructing the rules, China and Russia should jointly build an important platform to discuss the current problems that have appeared, such as how to make two countries' monetary system develop in a better direction, how to foster the interaction of China and Russia's economic and monetary policies, and so on.

Professor Graziev said that whether in China or Russia, how to deal with the common threat from the US has become the focus of debate in the political and academic circles of the two countries. In this regard, Graziev gave an analysis from the unique perspective of economists about the different thresholds, conditions, costs, and possible benefits and potential risks that may be brought to China, Russia and the international community. He concluded that in the triangle relations among China, the United States and Russia, the establishment of closer cooperation relations between China and Russia in the future should be a high probability event. However, at present, as China and Russia have played an increasingly important role at the international stage, the two countries should also use the power cautiously and restrain strategic competition with other big powers at the same time, thus avoiding a repeat of the cold war.

Professor Graziev’s lecture received a warm response from Chinese scholars and listeners. Zhang Deguang, Former Chinese Ambassador in Russia and Former Secretary-General of SCO, Yao Peisheng, Former Chinese Ambassador in Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, Liu Zhiqin, Li Zhongshang, Senior Fellow of RDCY, and Chen Xinmin, Professor of Institute of Russian European central Asian of School of International Studies at Renmin University of China, had a candid and in-depth exchange with Professor Graziev.