Chinese President Xi Jinping said Tuesday that “safeguarding, consolidating and developing relations between China and Russia is a strategic choice for both sides,” during his meeting in Beijing with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

Xi stressed that bilateral cooperation “has advanced resolutely despite a turbulent external environment” and assured that China is willing to link its 15th Five-Year Plan with Russia's economic and social development strategies in an effort to "boost higher-level and higher-quality growth," state broadcaster CCTV reported. The Chinese leader urged "maintaining close coordination" and "implementing the consensus reached" with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to "expand the foot of cooperation between the two countries and contribute to global development and world peace." The General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) also stressed the need to strengthen people-to-people and social-sector exchanges to solidify the friendship between the two countries and called for consolidating ties in areas such as energy, agriculture, connectivity, and the aerospace industry, as well as exploring new areas of cooperation in artificial intelligence, the digital economy, and green development. For his part, Mishustin conveyed Putin's greetings and stated that Moscow "is willing to work with Beijing to implement the consensus reached by both heads of state." State and deepen cooperation in the economic, scientific, and technological fields. cooperation, at a time when China and Russia are strengthening their alliance in the face of pressure from the United States and the European Union.