Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin condemned these initiatives. They have long viewed these two main strategic areas of Washington—promoting democracy abroad and deploying or sharing troops and military equipment—as huge threats to their peoples.
“It is hoped that the American side will take off their tinted glasses, abandon the Cold War worldview, consider Sino-Russian relations and cooperation objectively, acknowledge the mainstream of the times, and do more things beneficial to world peace and development,” said Liu Pengyu. , a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, when asked to comment on this article.
Alexander Gabuev, chairman of the Carnegie Moscow Center’s Russia in Asia-Pacific Program, said the China-Russia joint statement was a notable public milestone, but the most important collaboration took place under the surface. In particular, he said, the sale of weapons from Russia to the Chinese military should be of great concern to US policymakers.
Mr. Gabuev also noted that since the two countries settled territorial disputes along their 2,700-mile border in 2008 and expanded their military cooperationMoscow felt confident enough to move troops from its east to Ukraine to prepare for a potential invasion, reducing Russian troops on the borders with China and Mongolia to their lowest level since 1922.
However, the two countries also compete and disagree on major issues. China has a growing presence in Central Asia, whose former Soviet republics are viewed by Moscow as being within its sphere of influence. China insists that it is now a power in the Arctic, a region that Mr. Putin wanted to dominate. And the country has important trade relations with the countries of the former Eastern European bloc.
China is Ukraine’s largest trading partner, and Beijing has recognized the country’s sovereignty for decades. He never recognized Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014. It is noteworthy that there was no direct mention of Ukraine in the joint statement.
“When I was in government, we looked very closely at China’s calculations and found things that were inconsistent with what Putin was trying to do and worked on that basis,” said Daniel Russell, a former assistant secretary of state. for East Asia and the Pacific. “The thing is, it’s so late in the game and the three sides have moved so far in this uneven triangle that it really isn’t going to be easy to try to fix it.”
Eric Schmitt contributed reporting.