China’s chief diplomat Wang Yi and Vladimir Putin celebrate bilateral relations in Moscow. The meeting makes China’s peace initiative implausible.
The appearance left no doubt: when China’s top foreign politician, Wang Yi, met the Russian president, the mood was demonstratively exuberant. The small oval table, at which the two sat down after a warm handshake, is downright intimate by Vladimir Putin’s standards. And rhetorically too, they were emphatically friendly. The Kremlin chief hailed the bilateral relationship as reaching “new frontiers”. Wang also said that the “comprehensive strategic partnership will be further strengthened”.
The visit of the main Chinese diplomat to Moscow, which also serves as a prelude to a planned summit between the heads of state Xi Jinping and Putin, reaffirmed that China has not changed its dual – and also contradictory – position: the West presents itself as “most neutral mediator” and “peace-loving nation”, while in the Kremlin they celebrate a “solid” friendship.