Russia Appoints New Ambassador to China

Posted by Written by Chris Devonshire-Ellis Reading Time: 2 minutes

Will be a globally influential appointment as China and Russia embrace the construction of a new world order.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov as the new Ambassador to China, based on the President’s decree, and published on the official Kremlin website.

Another presidential decree also relieves Andrey Denisov of this office. Previously, Denisov had stated that he will soon wrap up his career as the head of the diplomatic mission in China. Denisov has served in this office since April 2013. He is remembered fondly by our firm as he gave a celebratory dinner for the launch of Dezan Shira & Associates’ first Belt and Road Initiative guidebook in 2015.

Morgulov is a veteran diplomat whose career with the Russian Foreign Ministry dates back to 1991. He has occupied various diplomatic offices, both in the Ministry’s central apparatus, including previous postings to China, the United States, and Japan). Between 2006 and 2009, he held the post of minister-counselor at the Russian Embassy in China. From 2009-2011, he served as the Director of the Foreign Ministry’s First Asia Department. In December 2011, he was appointed Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation. He graduated from the Institute of African and Asian Studies at Lomonosov Moscow State University and is fluent in Chinese and English.

Morgulov joins Russia’s Beijing mission at a critical time, with both Russia and China making inroads in ‘breaking up’ the hegemony of the West and installing a new, more globally inclusive world order. That will require extensive coordination of global policy with China, where the two countries have been cooperating on numerous regional issues that affect the shape of global architecture. These include the Iran and North Korea nuclear issues, and the development of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, whose Heads of State summit begins on Thursday (September 15). Russian President Xi is expected to hold discussions with China’s Xi Jinping over an array of issues. Other partnerships include the BRICS grouping in addition to regional issues such as the Chinese relationship with the Eurasian Economic Union and co-investments with the Belt and Road Initiative. China has been significantly investing in Russia over the past few years, and the two countries have adopted new cooperative strategies in a changing world. China-Russia trade is growing fast and is expected to reach US$200 billion by 2024. Most of the relations between the two countries however will be concentrated on combatting US dominance on a global basis and mutually attending to the emerging economies in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

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