'Peoples Controlling Their Destinies:' What Does Russia-China Synchrony Mean for Eurasia?

Speaking at the Third Belt and Road Forum (BRF) on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that China and Russia, as well as the majority of the world's countries, "share the desire for equal and mutually beneficial cooperation aimed at achieving sustainable and long-term economic progress and social well-being, while respecting the diversity of civilizations and the right of each country to its own model of development."

Touching upon China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Putin said that this strategy is in line with Russia's ideas about the formation of a large Eurasian space, where various integration processes could be linked, including within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union.

The BRI is in line with "our well-known proposal to form a large Eurasian space, as a space of cooperation and interaction of like-minded people, where a variety of integration processes will be linked," the Russian president said, referring to Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Eurasian Economic Union, which Putin said "Russia is successfully developing together with its partners in post-Soviet space."

According to him, Russia and China have reached an agreement on the parallel and coordinated development of the Eurasian Economic Union and the BRI.

The Russian leader also said that Moscow invites all interested countries to cooperate in the development of the Northern Sea Route.

"Concerning the Northern Sea Route, Russia is not just inviting its partners to actively use its transit potential. Let me say more: we invite interested countries to directly participate in its development. We are ready to provide reliable ice navigation, communications and supplies," Putin stressed.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping, for his part, said in an address to BRF participants that his country is not seeking isolated modernization for itself alone.

"We are not pursuing isolated modernization for China, but hope to carry out modernization together with numerous developing countries," Xi stated. He added that global modernization should be the modernization of peaceful development and win-win cooperation.

"China is willing to deepen partnership within the Belt and Road Initiative and push forward the joint build-up of the Belt and Road Initiative [strategy] to a new stage of high-quality development. Also, Beijing is poised to make unremitting efforts to implement the modernization of all countries in the world," the Chinese president pointed out.

Additionally, Xi underscored that China "has become a major trading partner" for more than 140 countries across the world and “is also becoming a major source of investment for an increasing number of nations."

Separately, the Chinese president emphasized that Beijing doesn’t "take part in ideological confrontation and geopolitical games." According to Xi, China opposes “unilateral sanctions, economic coercion and severance of ties.”

"The world continues to tolerate the West photocopying football fields of dollars and euros and as long as that happens, the former Great Powers will continue to desperately attack Russia, China and the World Island from every angle – look no further than Palestine today," Brown pointed out.

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Jeff J. Brown, the author of The China Trilogy and the editor at China Rising Radio Sinoland, told Sputnik that with Russia and China shaping the unified economic space, the two countries face a number of challenges, not the least of which is "NATO imperialism-colonialism.

He explained that the term "world island" is related to the concept of Asian integration by Halford John Mackinder, an English geographer, academic and politician who is considered one of the founding fathers of geopolitics.

"The ongoing integration of Asia is the growing realization of Halford Mackinder’s 1904 'Heartland Theory’, where Eastern Europe and all of Asia become the ‘World Island’," Brown said.

"It was assumed that colonial Western Europe would control this [above-mentioned] massive landmass, but it is now all the countries of the EAEU and BRI that hold the prize. From Africa to Vladivostok, Eastern Ukraine to Saudi Arabia and Iran, and China to Singapore, it is these peoples, and not the imperial West that control their own destinies," the political scientist concluded.

The third edition of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation is being held on October 17-18 in Beijing. The event is dedicated to the international economic and infrastructure development initiative of the same name, launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013. Its goal is to create new ways for regional economic partnership. The main theme of the event is called "High-Quality Belt and Road Cooperation: Together for Shared Development and Prosperity."