Putin is in China to meet his “dear friend” Xi Jinping
His plane landed in Beijing shortly before 9:30 a.m. (3:30 a.m. Paris time). Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, where he will meet his counterpart and “dear friend” Xi Jinping.
China is hosting representatives from around 130 countries through Wednesday for the Belt and Road Forum, a major diplomatic event expected to help strengthen its international standing.
As the chief guest, Vladimir Putin makes his first trip to a major world power since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which helped isolate Russia from many other states.
Moscow announced that on the sidelines of the event, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping will “discuss in a friendly and open manner (…) urgent problems of bilateral practical cooperation and the international agenda.”
In March, Vladimir Putin hosted Xi Jinping and the two leaders showed their understanding and argued for strengthening economic and military cooperation to counter what they portray as American hegemony.
Russia, which has been heavily sanctioned by the West for its offensive against Ukraine, has been trying for several months to strengthen its already very good relations – economic, military or even in the energy sector – with China, which appears to have gained the upper hand in its country bilateral relations. In this regard, Björn Alexander Duben, an expert in international relations at Jilin University (China), believes that Moscow is currently “unprecedentedly dependent on” Beijing, especially in economic terms.
Will there be any surprises during Vladimir Putin’s visit? Few experts expect big announcements. Above all, it should be an opportunity for Beijing to symbolically show its support to Moscow.
“Russia is aware that China does not want to sign agreements with wide publicity,” Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, told Agence France-Presse. “It is China that holds all the cards,” he emphasizes.
Before the “New Silk Roads” forum that began on Tuesday, Russian and Chinese foreign ministers met in Beijing on Monday. Sergey Lavrov thanked China for making Vladimir Putin the “main guest” of this meeting. In return, Wang Yi said China “appreciates” Russian support for its Belt and Road initiative.
China and Russia “need (…) deepen strategic mutual trust” and “consolidate traditional friendship,” Wang Yi told Sergey Lavrov on Monday.
At the heart of this rapprochement is the personal relationship between Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart, who called each other “dear friends.” “President Xi Jinping calls me his friend and I also call him my friend,” Putin said in an interview with Chinese television before his visit.