China’s leader said his country and Russia were “true friends who have been through thick and thin together” after a video call with President Vladimir V. Putin on Monday, according to Chinese state media.
The warm words attributed to Xi Jinping were clearly intended to dampen speculation that the Trump administration might succeed in driving a wedge between Beijing and Moscow.
The call came on the anniversary of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, after three years in which China has served as Russia’s most important foreign partner amid Moscow’s isolation in the West.
“History and reality show us that China and Russia are good neighbors who won’t move away, and true friends who have been through thick and thin together, support each other and develop together,” Mr. Xi was quoted as saying by Chinese state media.
Mr. Xi said relations between China and Russia were not “affected by any third party,” in what appeared to be an oblique reference to the United States. And he said the two countries’ foreign policies were for the “long term.”
The Kremlin issued a similarly cordial statement after the call, describing Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin’s conversation as “warm and friendly.” In a rebuff of the idea that President Trump could divide the two countries, the Kremlin added: “The leaders emphasized that the Russian-Chinese foreign policy link is the most important stabilizing factor in world affairs,” and said the relationship was “not subject to external influence.”
The call was the second between Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin in just over a month, coming less than two weeks after Mr. Trump upended U.S. strategy toward Russia by holding a phone call with Mr. Putin and appearing to side with him over the war in Ukraine. Mr. Trump blamed Ukraine for instigating Russia’s invasion, called President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine a “dictator” and excluded Kyiv from peace negotiations.
Mr. Trump’s decision to side so favorably with Mr. Putin on the war has fueled speculation that Washington was aiming to split Russia and China, a country that some senior Trump officials consider a far more serious threat to U.S. interests.
Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, told a panel earlier this month in Munich that the Trump administration was hoping to “force” Mr. Putin to fray his ties with North Korea, Iran and China.
Analysts, however, have expressed skepticism that China and Russia can be driven apart in what is being called a “reverse Nixon,” a reference to President Nixon’s rapprochement with Beijing in 1972 that was aimed at exploiting the worsening relations between China and the Soviet Union.
Unlike 53 years ago, ties between China and Russia today are at a high. Shortly before the invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin heralded a “no limits” partnership. Since then, China has sustained Russia’s war machine with oil purchases and exports of dual use technologies.
Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin also share an ideological opposition to the West. They blame the United States for holding back their global ambitions, and promote a reshaping of the global order to weaken Washington’s dominance.
“There’s strategic and geopolitical alignment for this relationship,” said Sergey Radchenko, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies who specializes in Chinese-Russian relations. “They don’t see eye to eye on everything, but I think they both realize they need each other.”
Mr. Radchenko said Beijing was probably feeling uncomfortable with Mr. Trump’s bid to court Mr. Putin, but that it was unlikely that Mr. Putin would see his interests better served by aligning more closely with the United States over China.
“The idea that Putin can be manipulated as some kind of weapon against China, I think that’s naïve on the part of the Trump administration,” he said.
Mr. Xi is set to visit Moscow in May to attend the commemorations of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, according to Russian state media.
The Kremlin said in a statement that Mr. Putin had informed Mr. Xi during their call about “recent Russian-American contacts.” It also said China had “expressed support for the dialogue between Russia and the United States that has begun, as well as readiness to contribute to the search for a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian conflict.”
In the comments published by Chinese state media, Mr. Xi said he was “pleased” that Russia had started negotiations with “other parties” to end the “Ukrainian crisis.”
China has yet to describe Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “war.”
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