Chinese President Xi Jinping has welcomed his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin as an “old friend” while the latter said their countries’ ties were at an “unprecedented level”, as the two began a series of meetings in Beijing seen as sending a message of defiance and strength to Western powers.
The two allies have sharp differences with the United States amid disputes over the Ukraine war and President Donald Trump’s ramping up of tariffs.
Putin addressed Xi as a “dear friend” on Tuesday and lauded Moscow’s deepening ties with Beijing. Following their formal talks in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, they planned to have another meeting over tea with some of their top aides.
The talks come a day after both attended a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the nearby Chinese city of Tianjin. Moscow and Beijing have promoted the SCO as a counterweight to Western-led alliances, with Putin arguing the world needs a “system that would replace outdated Eurocentric and Euro-Atlantic models”.
Before the end of his visit in Beijing, Putin is expected “to sign 20 deals increasing cooperation between Beijing and Moscow”, said Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu, reporting from Beijing. Putin and Xi “seem to have a very warm, genuine rapport… It does seem that their friendship hasn’t been impacted at all by criticism from the US or Western European leaders,” said Yu.
Relations between China and Russia have strengthened in recent years, particularly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
China says it is neutral in the Ukraine war, but has provided an economic lifeline to Russia by continuing trade despite Western sanctions. Some of its companies have been accused of abetting the military industry.
The two leaders’ talks also come the day before a huge Chinese military parade in Beijing to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s defeat and the end of World War II.
It will be attended by about two dozen world leaders, including North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, who state media in Pyongyang say has crossed the border into China before his planned attendance at the military parade, and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The former Soviet Union was neutral for much of the war in Asia, but provided assistance to China in earlier fighting against invading Japanese forces in the 1930s. It also declared war on Japan in the last days of World War II and sent troops over the border into Japanese-occupied northeastern China.
With this military parade, China hopes to show strength and unity, and send a message to the West, said Yu. Many of the leaders attending this parade “have been styled by the US, by the Trump administration as outcasts, as weak, as pariahs”, so the point China hopes to make by rolling out the red carpet for them is to show “they’re not isolated, that they do have friends and they do have power,” added Yu.
The SCO meeting has showcased a Global South solidarity and push for a new global order. “Global governance has reached a new crossroads,” Chinese President Xi Jinping told the summit on Monday, in remarks that were widely seen as a critique of the US.
Putin and Xi also held a trilateral meeting with Mongolian President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa before their talks on Tuesday. His landlocked country of grasslands and mineral mines is sandwiched between the two giants.
Putin said in opening remarks that the three countries are good neighbours, with a shared interest in developing ties. “Our three countries have much in common,” he said.
Xi in turn said: “The more chaotic the international situation becomes, the more China, Russia and Mongolia should strengthen solidarity and cooperation, and increase mutual support.”
In 2024, Putin made an official visit to Mongolia, where the government ignored calls to arrest him on an International Criminal Court warrant. Mongolia is a member of the ICC, which issued an arrest warrant for Putin last year over alleged war crimes in Ukraine, including the deportation of children to Russia.
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