2025 China-Russia Summit: Deepening Strategic Cooperation and Attempt to Restructure International Order

Jae Hung Chung

jameschung@sejong.org

Senior Research Fellow

Sejong Institute

In the context of the background of the 2025 China-Russia summit and the international situation, in May 2025, President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a summit in Moscow and announced a joint statement. This summit was a historical event commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory in World War II and the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Russia. Amidst the rapidly changing international situation such as the prolonged Russia-Ukraine war, U.S.-China hegemonic competition, and the spread of global conflicts, it served as an important opportunity for the two countries to formalize the necessity of escaping from the U.S.-centered international order and building a multipolar world order. The summit and the announcement of the statement were events that clearly revealed to the outside world the intention of China and Russia to further strengthen cooperation and to build a multipolar order that departs from the Western-centered international order, amid the rapid changes in the international environment such as the deepening U.S.-China hegemonic competition and the restructuring of the global order following the Russia-Ukraine war.

The China-Russia joint statement emphasized the solidarity and sacrifice demonstrated by the two countries during World War II and declared their joint responsibility to uphold a correct view of history. It highlighted the roles of the two countries in fighting against Japanese militarism and Nazi Germany, and urged the Japanese government to reflect on its past and to adopt a cautious attitude regarding the Yasukuni Shrine issue. It also clearly expressed the will to firmly oppose the resurgence of anti-human ideologies such as Nazism, neo-Nazism, militarism, and racism. In particular, Russia and China urged the Japanese government to reflect historically and break with militarism, thereby clearly showing their perception of past history. The two countries evaluated the China-Russia relationship as the highest in history based on historical bonds, and declared that China and Russia would deepen their strategic partnership in all areas and present a new model of a multipolar international order. They clearly stated that in the above process, the China-Russia relationship does not target any third country and is independent from external interference.

Meanwhile, the two countries defined the defense of the UN Charter and the international legal order as a shared responsibility, and formalized checks against U.S.-centered unilateral sanctions and hegemonic diplomatic behavior that undermine them. This reflects the strategies of both countries to utilize international law and the UN multilateral system while seeking to escape the Western dominance in interpretation and operation. That is, the two countries evaluated the China-Russia relationship as the highest in history and emphasized an independent and autonomous strategic cooperative relationship that does not target any third party. To this end, they confirmed their intention for close cooperation and solidarity in all areas, including strengthening military-security cooperation, regularizing summit diplomacy and high-level exchanges, expanding military training and technological cooperation, and supporting each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity. In effect, Russia expressed its support for the One-China principle, and China expressed its support for Russia's security and sovereignty, and the two countries agreed to further strengthen the China-Russia relationship.

China and Russia announced their plan to further accelerate the expansion of economic and technological cooperation and the promotion of de-dollarization, and agreed to significantly strengthen economic and technological cooperation between the two countries. In particular, by 2030, the two countries plan to achieve qualitative advancement in almost all industrial sectors including trade, finance, energy, aerospace, and information and communications, and to strengthen strategic linkages. The main focus is the promotion of de-dollarization, and the two countries continue to expand the proportion of transactions using the yuan and ruble, have begun to build an independent payment system separate from the U.S.-led SWIFT system, and are jointly seeking mechanisms to circumvent Western financial sanctions. This is being pursued as a medium- to long-term strategy to build a joint defense system against Western financial sanctions and to weaken dollar hegemony. In addition, the intention to structurally integrate the two countries’ economies was specified very concretely through cooperation in energy (oil, gas, electricity), rail and road infrastructure connections, Arctic route cooperation, joint development of advanced technologies, and the conclusion of investment protection agreements. This is intended to establish a politically and economically complementary structure between China and Russia, and to concretize a new bloc capable of jointly responding to external shocks. In fact, the volume of China-Russia trade in 2024 surpassed 300 billion dollars, and they set a goal of reaching 500 billion dollars within five years, agreeing to establish a new BRICS-centered alternative international payment system.

China and Russia agreed to further strengthen people-to-people exchanges and cultural-public diplomacy as part of a closer strategic cooperative relationship, and showed the direction of turning cultural connections in public sectors such as humanities, social sciences, education, media, arts, sports/youth programs into political-strategic assets in the dimension of enhancing people-to-people exchanges. In particular, China and Russia stated that they would protect each other’s cultural sovereignty and traditional values and expand objective and fair reporting through media cooperation in response to the spread of Western-centric liberal universal values, and are also attempting to form counter-narratives against Western media. Efforts such as historical education, joint commemorative events, artistic creation cooperation, and youth political-cultural forums targeting youth and future younger generations can be seen as part of an attempt to expand the cultural and ideological legitimacy of future China-Russia strategic solidarity, and China and Russia agreed to pass on a patriotic worldview to the younger generation based on their own national identities and shared historical awareness. To this end, they expressed their position to further strengthen the level of cultural-public diplomacy cooperation between the two countries by countering Western-centric ideologies and defending traditional values, including holding the China-Russia Years of Culture in 2024–2025.

To reform global governance and strengthen the China-Russia strategic solidarity, they began to pursue a transition to a new multipolar international order centered on China-Russia-led BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization(SCO), and the Global South alliance, while advocating the defense of the United Nations(UN) system. China and Russia stated their mid-to-long-term vision to further strengthen cooperation with BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and to build a new-level Eurasian economic-security system in order to construct a fair and sustainable multipolar international order, in response to some minority Western countries that distort the achievements of the victory in World War II and ignore the UN-centered international order and international law. They have already agreed to promote the establishment of the Tashkent Comprehensive Center for Security Threat Response and the Dushanbe Counter-Narcotics Center, and are accelerating the construction of a new alternative international order that is not the U.S.-Western-centered unipolar order. In particular, the two countries expressed their position to build a Eurasia-centered security-economic community through the SCO, to restructure the non-Western international financial order through BRICS, and to actively promote a payment system centered on their own currencies (the ruble and the yuan), as well as cooperation in artificial intelligence(AI), the carbon market, and food and energy security.

To this end, the external expansion strategies of BRICS Plus and SCO Plus can be seen as a plan by China and Russia to design new norms, institutions, and order outside the Western institutional sphere and to spread them as new global standards. China and Russia have proposed a plan to begin a new competition of norms that is not centered on the United States and the West. In addition, China and Russia are presenting China- and Russia-centered interpretations and approaches on international agendas such as climate change, digital sovereignty, artificial intelligence (AI) control, and humanitarian assistance. Among these, in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), Russia’s official participation in China-led international cooperation on artificial intelligence (AI) showed that the two countries reached a consensus on further expanding cooperation in areas such as economic diplomacy centered on advanced technology fields.

In the dimension of accelerating a new multipolar international order, China and Russia also specified the strengthening of military-security solidarity in the statement. Through China-Russia joint military exercises, joint naval and air patrols, and the expansion of military technology cooperation, the two countries are effectively moving toward the establishment of a military-security community, which can be seen as a response to NATO’s eastward expansion led by the United States and the West, as well as to the U.S.-ROK-Japan trilateral security cooperation and the Indo-Pacific strategy. In particular, regarding the Korean Peninsula issue, China and Russia are expressing a strong joint position, emphasizing that only political and diplomatic dialogue—not military means or sanctions against North Korea—can resolve the issue, and calling for the suspension of sanctions against North Korea and the halt of the military bloc formation in the region led by the U.S.-ROK-Japan trilateral cooperation. Furthermore, they presented the Greater Tumen Initiative (GTI), which aims to actively pursue regional development and peace by expanding economic cooperation among China's three northeastern provinces, Russia’s Far East region, and North Korea. In effect, it is a plan to restrain the expansion of influence by the U.S.-led U.S.-ROK-Japan trilateral strategic security cooperation in the region and to lead a shift in the regional order under China-Russia leadership. China and Russia expressed a joint position opposing the U.S.-led regional nuclear sharing and redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons as part of their strategic cooperation and strongly criticized the U.S.-promoted global missile defense(MD) system aimed at countering Chinese and Russian nuclear weapons. In addition, they strongly urged the prevention of the militarization of outer space and the conclusion of a treaty to prevent an arms race in space, which are being attempted as part of U.S. efforts to dominate outer space, and emphasized the security needs of China and Russia.

China and Russia urged the United States to suspend sanctions against North Korea and to shift its North Korea policy, emphasizing the resolution of the Korean Peninsula issue through political and diplomatic means rather than force or sanctions. In particular, they expressed a joint position that the strengthening of military and security cooperation led by the United States, South Korea, and Japan is a major cause of military and security tensions in the region, and strongly called for the immediate suspension of unilateral sanctions and pressure policies against North Korea. In addition, in the dimension of expanding transnational economic cooperation, they shared a common understanding and goal to expand comprehensive economic cooperation among North Korea, China, and Russia in areas such as transportation, energy, trade, investment, digital economy, agriculture, and tourism in order to revitalize the Greater Tumen Initiative(GTI), and agreed to further strengthen strategic cooperation to break North Korea’s economic isolation and neutralize sanctions against North Korea. In effect, following the dispatch of North Korean troops to Russia’s Kursk region, a new level of China-Russia and North Korea-Russia solidarity is being formed, and the regional order is showing a structure of bloc confrontation between the United States-South Korea-Japan and North Korea-China-Russia. In the end, in a structure where bloc formation surrounding the Korean Peninsula is accelerating, the more strategic cooperation between China and Russia is solidified, the more complex and difficult the resolution of the North Korean issue becomes, making a very cautious approach and strategic consideration necessary.

South Korea is required to adopt a strategic approach of “aligning with the U.S. while cooperating economically with China and maintaining pragmatic relations with Russia” based on the ROK-U.S. alliance. In particular, in the rapidly changing international order, South Korea needs to play the role of mediator and build multilateral dialogue platforms, such as South Korea-China-Russia trilateral dialogue, South Korea-U.S.-China-Russia quadrilateral dialogue, and South Korea-Russia-Europe trilateral dialogue, requiring proactive mediation diplomacy. Already, South Korea, as a global middle power, presents key policy tasks such as pragmatic diplomacy and a national interest-centered foreign strategy, entry into northern and Eurasian markets, activation of transnational economic cooperation such as the Greater Tumen Initiative(GTI), and humanitarian aid to North Korea and revitalization of civilian contact and exchanges to improve inter-Korean relations. Going forward, it is necessary to continuously monitor how the various initiatives and cooperation measures of the China-Russia joint statement are actually implemented and what specific impact they have on the security environment of the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia, and to prepare countermeasures accordingly.

Currently, China and Russia, through official government statements, are calling for the creation of an atmosphere that allows the resumption of equal and friendly dialogue in response to North Korea's legitimate and reasonable security concerns. In effect, they emphasize that meaningless sanctions and pressure against North Korea do not work, and that dialogue and negotiation are the only solutions to the Korean Peninsula issue. Therefore, it is expected that once the Russia-Ukraine war and the Middle East conflict are somewhat settled, direct changes in the order on the Korean Peninsula, located in the eastern part of Eurasia, will be inevitable. In particular, North Korea also stated that it will strengthen joint struggle with China and Russia in order to safeguard world peace and stability, and will inscribe a new page in the changing international order. Already, North Korea has emphasized through official government statements that it will further strengthen strategic coordination and tactical cooperation with China and Russia in order to safeguard the core interests of North Korea-China and North Korea-Russia relations and to establish a new multipolar international order based on independence and justice. In the end, China and Russia are clearly presenting a mid-to-long-term strategic vision to actively promote a new multipolar international order by seeking changes in the orders of Ukraine, the Middle East, and the Korean Peninsula, based on mutual strategic solidarity and cooperation with the Global South, Middle Eastern countries (Shiafa Belt), North Korea, and Africa (Sahel Belt region), so changes in the situation on the Korean Peninsula also appear to be inevitable.

The 2025 China-Russia summit and the announcement of the joint statement can be evaluated as a historic document that formalized the transition to a new multipolar order, not the existing U.S.-centered unipolar order, and it presents a mid-to-long-term roadmap for the construction of an alternative international order that goes beyond mere diplomatic rhetoric. In particular, for South Korea, balanced diplomacy that does not completely sever relations with China and Russia, in addition to the ROK-U.S. alliance, is urgently needed in the rapidly changing structure of the new multipolar international order. As the Russia-Ukraine war, the Middle East conflict, the Taiwan issue, and the Korean Peninsula issue become increasingly interconnected and the U.S.-ROK-Japan trilateral security cooperation is strengthened, the trilateral solidarity of North Korea, China, and Russia is gradually taking concrete shape. In this situation, South Korea needs a balanced diplomatic perspective, and is important to respond more strategically and flexibly.