On March 30, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. The parties expectedly affirmed further strengthening of their strategic partnership, condemned the use of unilateral sanctions, and discussed the situation in Afghanistan, Central Asia and Ukraine. To make a long story short, the statements made did not convey much political meaning.

Implementation of the signed agreement might present a challenge for its parties, and particularly Russia, in certain important aspects. On a number of issues, Moscow seems to be more interested than its Eastern partner is. This could also be true for the paragraph on internationalization and democratization of the Internet governance mechanism, in which the official Russian approach has been embedded. Russia’s goal is to achieve transition of control over critical technical business processes (including the IANA and VeriSign functions related to management of the DNS Root Zone) under the jurisdiction of international bodies such as International Telecommunication Union.