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Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing for talks with Xi Jinping that the Kremlin hopes will deepen the strategic partnership between the United States’ two most powerful geopolitical rivals.
State news agency Xinhua confirmed his arrival on Thursday for what Chinese state media described as a state visit from an “old friend”. The two leaders will participate in a gala evening on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the recognition of the People’s Republic by the Soviet Union Chinawhich was announced by Mao Zedong in 1949.
Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuriy Ushakov said the two leaders would hold informal talks on Thursday evening over tea and that they would touch on Ukraine, Asia, energy and trade.
Putin will also visit Harbin in northeastern China, a city with strong ties to Russia. It was not immediately clear whether Putin would visit other Asian capitals after Beijing.
In February 2022, China and Russia announced a an “unrestricted” partnership. when Putin visited Beijing just days before sending tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, sparking Europe’s deadliest ground war since World War II.
By choosing China for his first foreign trip since being sworn in for a term that will keep him in power until at least 2030, Putin is sending a message to the world about his priorities and the depth of his personal relationship with Xi.
In an interview with China’s Xinhua news agency, Putin praised Xi for helping build a “strategic partnership” with Russia based on national interests and deep mutual trust.
“The unprecedentedly high level of strategic partnership between our countries determined my choice of China as the first country I will visit after officially taking office as president of the Russian Federation,” Putin said.
“We will try to establish closer cooperation in the field of industry and high technology, space and peaceful nuclear energy, artificial intelligence, renewable energy sources and other innovative sectors,” Putin said.
He also welcomed what he called Beijing’s “genuine desire” to help end the war in Ukraine.
“This is Putin’s first trip since taking office and therefore aims to show that Sino-Russian relations are rising to another level,” independent Russian political analyst Konstantin Kalachev told AFP. “Not to mention the apparently sincere personal friendship between the two leaders.”
The US has identified China as its biggest competitor and Russia as the biggest threat to the nation-state, while US President Joe Biden has argued that this century will be defined by an existential contest between democracies and autocracies.
Putin and Xi share a broad worldview that sees the West as decadent and in decline, just as China challenges US superiority in everything from quantum computing and synthetic biology to espionage and hard military power.
China has strengthened its trade and military ties with Russia in recent years after the United States and its allies imposed sanctions on both countries, particularly Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
The West claims that China played a crucial role in helping Russia resist sanctions and supplied key technology that Russia used on the battlefield in Ukraine. China maintains a neutral position in the conflict but has backed Moscow’s claims that Russia was provoked into attacking Ukraine by the West, despite Putin’s public acknowledgment of his desire to restore Russia’s centuries-old borders as the reason for his attack.
China, once Moscow’s junior partner in the global communist hierarchy, remains Russia’s most powerful friend in the world.
Putin’s arrival follows a mission to Beijing at the end of last month by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinkenin part to warn China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, against deepening military support for Russia.
Putin’s newly appointed Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, as well as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu and Foreign Policy Adviser Yuri Ushakov will also attend, along with Russia’s most powerful CEOs.
It was unclear whether Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller would go to China as he was on a working visit to Iran on Wednesday.
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