North Korea and China have marked the 75th anniversary of their bilateral relationship amid escalated tensions over cold ties with the West.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Chinese President Xi Jinping exchanged messages on Sunday, expressing hope for better and stronger ties between the two countries.

In Kim’s message, he said Pyongyang will “steadily strive to consolidate and develop the friendly and cooperative relations” between the two countries, according to North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

In Xi’s message to Kim, he said that China is ready to jointly promote “the stable and further advance of the socialist cause in the two countries,” KCNA reported.

Ever since China and North Korea established diplomatic ties on Oct. 6, 1949, their bilateral relationship has been described as being “as close as lips and teeth.” 

The two leaders marked the anniversary of the two countries’ close bilateral ties just days after China celebrated the 75th founding anniversary of New China.

The past seven decades have seen China rise from a poor country to the world’s second-largest economy and a major country moving ever closer to beating the United States and taking center stage in global science, industry, and technology.

US foreign policy, however, seeks to maintain its global hegemony, devised after World War II and consolidated with the eventual fall of the Soviet Union,  through its globally spread military bases in US-allied countries and US-led global institutions overseeing international commerce and the world economy.

The China-North Korea relationship is marked by the shared goal of countering US influence in the region.

To this date, China remains North Korea’s biggest trading partner and main aid provider amid the West’s sanctions.

China sees North Korea as a strategic buffer against US influence in the region.

China’s support for Pyongyang reflects its desire to maintain regional stability while minimizing the risk of a North Korean collapse that could result in a flood of refugees and a US-allied Korea on its border.

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