Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to deepen their strategic partnership in Beijing on Thursday, in a stark show of their growing alignment as Moscow\u2019s troops advance in Ukraine. <\/p>\n
Putin \u2014 whose delegation includes top defense and security officials \u2014 was welcomed by Xi to Beijing\u2019s Great Hall of the People earlier with full military pageantry, heralding the start of the Russian president\u2019s two-day state visit. <\/p>\n
A sweeping joint statement released by the two leaders laid out their countries\u2019 alignment on a host of issues including energy, trade, security, and geopolitics with specific references to Ukraine, Taiwan and conflict in the Middle East. <\/p>\n
The visit \u2014 Putin\u2019s symbolic first overseas foray since starting a new term as Russia\u2019s president last week \u2014 is the latest sign of tightening relations as the two bind their countries closer in the face of heavy friction with the West. <\/p>\n
The statement proclaimed that China-Russian relations have stood \u201cthe test of rapid changes in the world, demonstrating strength and stability, and are experiencing the best period in their history,\u201d the two leaders calling each other \u201cpriority partners.\u201d <\/p>\n
Putin, whose country\u2019s economy has become increasingly reliant on China since his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, hailed the countries\u2019 \u201cpractical cooperation\u201d in meetings with Xi, noting their record bilateral trade last year, while stressing the importance of bolstering energy, industrial, and agriculture cooperation, according to Russian state media Tass. <\/p>\n
Their meeting is Putin and Xi\u2019s fourth time speaking face-to-face since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine \u2014 weeks after the two declared a \u201cno limits\u201d partnership on the sidelines of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. <\/p>\n
This week\u2019s state visit comes amid mounting international concern about the direction of the war in Ukraine amid delays to aid for Kyiv and as Russia\u2019s economy and defense complex appears unbowed by Western sanctions \u2014 a situation that United States officials have alleged is linked to Chinese support, which Beijing denies. <\/p>\n
Putin says he and Xi will discuss the war in Ukraine in informal talks later Thursday evening, which are expected to include Russia\u2019s newly appointed Defense Minister Andrey Belousov and his predecessor Sergei Shoigu, now secretary of Russia\u2019s Security Council. <\/p>\n
Putin\u2019s red-carpet welcome to Beijing comes a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced via his office that he would halt all upcoming international visits, as his troops defend against a surprise Russian offensive in his country\u2019s northeastern Kharkiv region. <\/p>\n
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Kyiv earlier this week to reaffirm the Biden administration\u2019s support for Ukraine after months of Congressional delay in approving American military aid to the embattled country. Blinken pledged $2 billion in foreign military financing and said much-needed ammunition and weapons are being rushed to the front lines. <\/p>\n
Pressure has also been mounting on Xi from both the US and Europe to ensure soaring exports from China to Russia since the start of the war aren\u2019t propping up the Kremlin\u2019s war effort. <\/p>\n
White House officials in recent weeks have confronted Beijing on what they believe is substantial support for Russia\u2019s defense industrial base \u2014 in the form of goods like machine tools, drone and turbojet engines and microelectronics exported from China. Beijing has slammed the US as making \u201cgroundless accusations\u201d over \u201cnormal trade and economic exchanges\u201d between China and Russia. <\/p>\n
Beijing has never condemned Russia\u2019s invasion, rather it claims neutrality in the conflict and has released a vaguely articulated 12-point position on its resolution. Ahead of an expected peace conference in Switzerland next month, Xi has called for peace talks that take both sides\u2019 positions into account. <\/p>\n
On Ukraine, Russia said in Thursday\u2019s joint statement that it welcomed the readiness of China \u201cto play a constructive role\u201d in the political and diplomatic settlement of the conflict and that \u201cit is necessary to eliminate its root causes and adhere to the principle of the indivisibility of security,\u201d in an apparent allusion to their shared view that NATO is responsible for the conflict in Ukraine. <\/p>\n
\u201cChina hopes for peace and stability in Europe soon, and continues to play a constructive role,\u201d Xi said. <\/p>\n
This week\u2019s visit marks the leaders\u2019 43rd meeting in the more than one decade that Xi has been in power. Xi and Putin, known for their close personal chemistry, have steadily expanded their countries\u2019 diplomatic coordination and economic and security cooperation in that time \u2014 as both faced mounting frictions with the US and its allies. <\/p>\n
Even as Xi seeks to repair frayed relations with Europe and stabilize his country\u2019s ties with the US, he is widely seen as unwilling to sacrifice his partnership with Putin, who the Chinese leader sees as an indispensable partner in reshaping a world order both believe is unfairly dominated by the US and seeking to contain them. <\/p>\n
This shared worldview was also on show Thursday as Xi, speaking alongside Putin, decried a lingering \u201cCold War mentality,\u201d and said \u201cunilateral hegemony, camp confrontations and power politics threaten world peace and security of every country\u201d \u2014 using language typical of Beijing and Moscow\u2019s criticisms of the US and its allies. <\/p>\n
The two leaders said in the joint statement they will \u201cdeepen trust and cooperation\u201d in the military field by expanding the scope of joint exercises and combat training, regularly conducting joint sea and air patrols and improving the \u201ccapabilities and level of joint response to challenges and threats.\u201d <\/p>\n
Putin nodded to Xi\u2019s concerns about rising engagement between NATO and like-minded countries in Asia, calling for a \u201creliable and adequate architecture of security in the Asia-Pacific region, in which there will be no place for closed military-political alliances.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWe think the creation of such alliances to be counterproductive and harmful,\u201d Putin said following meetings Thursday. <\/p>\n
In the statement, the two countries also expressed \u201cvery deep concern\u201d over what they described as US military activity with allies \u201cthat have a clear anti-Russian and anti-Chinese orientation,\u201d calling the actions \u201cextremely destabilizing.\u201d <\/p>\n
The two leaders \u201creaffirmed there can be no winners in a nuclear war and it should never be fought,\u201d and called for revisions to global security arrangements to prevent military confrontation. <\/p>\n
Besides engagements in Beijing, which are expected to include a \u201cgala\u201d marking the two countries\u2019 75 years of diplomatic ties, Putin is also expected to attend trade and cooperation forums in Harbin, the capital of China\u2019s northeastern Heilongjiang province bordering Russia\u2019s Far East. <\/p>\n
The region is historically a site of long-simmering border tensions between the two neighbors, which erupted in conflict between China and the Soviet Union in 1969. It has seen increasing connectivity with parts of Russia\u2019s Far East in recent years. <\/p>\n
Putin is also expected to meet with the students and faculty of the Harbin Institute of Technology, a university sanctioned by the US government in 2020 for its alleged role in procuring items for China\u2019s military. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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