Day: May 16, 2024

BEIJING/MOSCOW, May 16 (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned what they cast as increasingly aggressive U.S. behaviour on Thursday and pledged to deepen their countries’ already close defence and military ties.

In a clear snub to Washington, whose top diplomat flew into China last month to try to persuade Beijing to scale back its relationship with Moscow, Xi signalled Beijing and Moscow saw eye to eye on a range of important issues, including on Ukraine, and would resist Western pressure to downgrade their ties.

“The China-Russia relationship today is hard-earned, and the two sides need to cherish and nurture it,” Xi told Putin.

“China is willing to … jointly achieve the development and rejuvenation of our respective countries, and work together to uphold fairness and justice in the world.”

A joint statement spoke of concerns about what were described as U.S. efforts to violate the strategic nuclear balance, about global U.S. missile defence that threatened Russia and China, and about U.S. plans for high precision non-nuclear weapons.

Putin, on his first overseas trip since being inaugurated this month for a new presidential term, described Moscow and Beijing’s co-operation in world affairs as one of the main stabilising factors in the international arena.

“Together we are defending the principles of justice and a democratic world order reflecting multipolar realities and based on international law,” Putin told Xi.

Putin’s visit comes weeks after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew into China to raise concerns about what he said was China’s support for Russia’s military and a day after he said Washington would continue to impose sanctions on Chinese companies supplying Russia’s defence sector.

Blinken’s China trip appears to have been an unsuccessful attempt to undermine a “no limits” partnership proclaimed when Putin visited Beijing in February 2022, just days before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine triggering the deadliest land war in Europe since World War Two.

By picking China for his first foreign trip since being sworn-in this month for a six-year term that will keep him in power until at least 2030, Putin is sending a message to the world about his priorities and the strength of his personal ties with Xi.

The joint statement was described as deepening the strategic relationship and spoke specifically of how joint cooperation in the defence sectors between the two nations improved regional and global security and of plans to step up military ties.

It also condemned initiatives to seize assets and property of foreign states, a clear reference to Western moves to redirect the profits from frozen Russian assets or the assets themselves to help Ukraine.

Xi said both sides agreed that a political settlement to the Ukraine crisis was the “right direction” and the joint statement said both countries were opposed to a drawn out conflict in Ukraine and its possible transition to an uncontrollable phase.

Putin, who arrived on Thursday for a two-day visit that will include talks on Ukraine, Asia, energy and trade, said he was grateful to China for trying to solve the Ukraine crisis, adding that he would brief Xi on the situation there, where Russian forces are advancing on several fronts.

Describing his initial talks with Xi as “warm and comradely”, he outlined sectors where the two countries were strengthening ties, from nuclear and energy co-operation to food supplies and Chinese car manufacturing in Russia.

Informal chats between the leaders and senior officials of both sides to be held over tea and dinner later on Thursday are expected to be key to the two-day trip.

Putin’s newly appointed defence minister, Andrei Belousov, as well as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu and Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov will also attend, along with Russia’s most powerful CEOs.

Putin, 71, and Xi, 70, will participate in a gala celebration marking 75 years since the Soviet Union recognised the People’s Republic of China, which Mao Zedong declared in 1949.

The United States casts China as its biggest competitor and Russia as its biggest nation-state threat, while U.S. President Joe Biden says this century will be defined by an existential contest between democracies and autocracies.

Putin and Xi share a broad world view, which casts the West as decadent and declining, just as China challenges U.S. supremacy in everything from quantum computing and synthetic biology to espionage and hard military power.

Putin will also visit the northeastern city of Harbin, which has historic ties to Russia. A mall devoted to Russian-made goods from about 80 Russian manufacturers opened on Thursday, the China Daily said.

China has strengthened trade and military ties with Russia in recent years as the United States and its allies imposed sanctions on both countries, particularly Moscow, for its invasion of Ukraine.

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Beijing — Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked Chinese leader Xi Jinping for his efforts to resolve the war in Ukraine at a Beijing summit on Thursday, where the two leaders reaffirmed a “no-limits” partnership that has grown as both countries face rising tension with the West.

Putin’s two-day state visit to one of his strongest allies came as his country’s forces press an offensive in northeast Ukraine’s Kharkiv region – the most significant border incursion since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022.

The largely symbolic visit stressed the growing partnership between two countries that both face challenges in their relationships with the U.S. and Europe.

“Both sides want to show that despite what is happening globally, despite the pressure that both sides are facing from the U.S., both sides are not about to turn their backs on each other anytime soon,” said Hoo Tiang Boon, a professor who studies Chinese foreign policy at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.

Talk of peace in Ukraine, but no proposals

While both leaders said they were seeking an end to the war in Ukraine, they offered no new specifics in their public remarks Thursday afternoon. China has significant influence as a key supporter of Russia, both before and since its invasion. The country claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed Moscow’s contentions that Russia was provoked into attacking Ukraine by the West, and continues to supply Russia with key components that Moscow needs for its productions of weapons.

China proposed a broadly worded peace plan in 2023, but it was rejected by both Ukraine and the West for failing to call for Russia to leave occupied parts of Ukraine.

“China hopes for the early return of Europe to peace and stability and will continue to play a constructive role toward this,” Xi said, speaking alongside Putin.

Breaking down the latest in Ukraine’s war against Russia 02:44

Putin said he would inform the Chinese leader in detail about “the situation in Ukraine,” and said “we appreciate the initiative of our Chinese colleagues and friends to regulate the situation.”

The two-year-old war has entered a critical stage with Russia’s new offensive in Ukraine. Kyiv’s depleted military is still waiting for new supplies of anti-aircraft missiles and artillery shells from the United States after months of delay.

On the eve of the visit, Putin said in an interview with Chinese media that the Kremlin was prepared to negotiate over the conflict in Ukraine, “but such negotiations must take into account the interests of all countries involved in the conflict, including ours.”

Putin said the Chinese proposal rejected by Ukraine last year could “lay the groundwork for a political and diplomatic process that would take into account Russia’s security concerns and contribute to achieving a long-term and sustainable peace.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said any negotiations must include a restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the withdrawal of Russian troops, the release of all prisoners, a tribunal for those responsible for the aggression and security guarantees for Ukraine. 

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy warns of risks to U.S. if Putin not stopped 34:00

The Ukrainian leader warned recently in an interview with CBS News that if the U.S. and NATO fail to help his military stop Putin’s advance, Russia could bring his war directly “to Europe, and to the United States” as NATO’s biggest member.

China and Russia’s growing “no-limits” relationship

Before their remarks, the two leaders signed a joint statement on deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership between their nations on their 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties. Xi said China and Russia would continue to uphold a position of non-alliance and non-confrontation.

The two autocratic countries — which two years ago suggested they were working together to offer a new “democratic world order” — also said in their joint statement Thursday that they would continue to consider the negative impact of the U.S. and NATO’s strategy in the Asia-Pacific.

China has been increasingly assertive in its claims to a number of contested territories in the region recently, with tension between Beijing and the U.S. focused sharply on the future of the democratically governed island of Taiwan, just of China’s east coast. Xi has vowed to assert Chinese control over the island, which the U.S. is bound by law to help defend, and he has never ruled out using force.

Japan’s increased military presence on their small island of Ishigaki frustrates locals 03:42

Thursday’s meeting was yet another affirmation of the friendly “no limits” relationship the two leaders formalized in 2022, just before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Since then, Russia has become increasingly economically dependent on China as Western sanctions cut Moscow’s access to much of the international trading system. China’s increased trade with Russia, totaling $240 billion last year, has helped the country mitigate some of the worst blowback from sanctions.

Moscow has diverted the bulk of its energy exports to China and relies on Chinese companies for imports of high-tech components for its military industries — to circumvent Western sanctions.

“I and President Putin agree, we should actively look for convergence points of the interests of both countries, to develop each’s advantages, and deepen integration of interests, realizing each others’ achievements,” Xi said.

Russia-China military ties have also strengthened over the last few years. They’ve held a series of joint war games, including naval drills and patrols by long-range bombers over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea.

How the U.S. Navy is preparing for possible Chinese aggression toward Taiwan 02:17

China remains a major market for Russian military hardware, while Beijing is also massively expanding its domestic defense industries, including building aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines.

Putin has previously said Russia has been sharing highly sensitive military technologies with China that helped significantly bolster its defense capability. In October 2019, he mentioned that Russia was helping China to develop an early warning system to spot ballistic missile launches – a system involving ground-based radar and satellites that only Russia and the U.S. possessed.

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