President Vladimir Putin on Sunday welcomed China’s willingness to play a “constructive role” in ending the conflict in Ukraine, saying Sino-Russian relations were “at the highest point”.
His Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping heads to Russia on Monday hoping to deliver a breakthrough on Ukraine as Beijing seeks to position itself as a peacemaker. The quality of ties between Moscow and Beijing is “higher than the political and military unions of the Cold War era”, Putin said in an article written for a Chinese newspaper and published by the Kremlin on the eve of Xi’s visit.
Putin said he had “high expectations” of his talks with the Chinese leader. “We have no doubt that they will give a new powerful impetus to the whole bilateral cooperation,” he added. He also hailed “China’s willingness to play a constructive role in resolving” the year-long conflict in Ukraine.
Freshly reappointed for a third term in power, Xi is pushing a greater role for China on the global stage, and was crucial in mediating a surprise rapprochement between Middle Eastern rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia this month.
Here’s what the meeting signifies:
History
In February 2022, just ahead of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Xi and President Vladimir Putin declared a “no-limits” partnership between the two countries.
The countries enjoyed a close ideological bond in the early Cold War period rooted in their common history of communist revolution, although the Sino-Soviet split of the 1960s began a three-decade freeze.
Ties between Moscow and Beijing strengthened considerably after the fall of the Soviet Union, spurred on in recent years by Xi’s and Putin’s shared opposition to what they see as Western international hegemony.
Putin said Sunday that relations were at “the highest point”.
Trading Partners
The vast neighbours have built a close economic trade relationship throughout recent decades, with China now the largest buyer of Russian oil.
These ties have remained strong throughout the Ukraine war. China’s trade with Russia reached a record $190 billion last year, Beijing customs data shows.
Moscow’s economic ties with the European Union have largely been severed by a wave of crippling sanctions, making China an even more important customer for Russian exports. Xi’s visit to the Russian capital comes as bilateral trade continues to grow, with Chinese imports and exports showing double-digit annual growth in January and February, according to customs data.
‘Dear Old Friend’
And Chinese and Russian leaders have developed a close rapport over the past decade that often conflicts with their otherwise stern public demeanours.
Xi used rare personal language to describe his Russian counterpart during a regional summit in Uzbekistan last September, greeting Putin warmly as “my dear old friend“.
And despite repeated urging by Western leaders, Xi has thus far declined to condemn the Ukraine invasion. The Chinese leader’s comments on the Ukraine war echo the rhetoric adopted repeatedly by Putin — that NATO’s eastward expansion and US-led hegemonic behaviour bear central responsibility for the conflict.
For Xi, publicly demonstrating the mutual affection he enjoys with Putin allows him to bolster his reputation as a leading statesman, a key pillar of his ambitions for China to play a bigger role on the global stage.
Global Stage
The meeting gives Putin and Xi a chance to show they have “powerful partners” at a time of strained relations with Washington, said Joseph Torigian, an expert in Chinese-Russian relations at American University in Washington.
“China can signal that it could even do more to help Russia, and that if relations with the United States continue to deteriorate, they could do a lot more to enable Russia and help Russia in its war against Ukraine,” Torigian said.
Beijing’s relations with Washington, Europe and its neighbors are strained by disputes over technology, security, human rights and the ruling Communist Party’s treatment of Hong Kong and Muslim minorities.
Some commentators have pointed to a possible parallel between Russia’s claims to Ukrainian territory and Beijing’s claim to Taiwan. The Communist Party says the self-ruled island democracy, which split with China in 1949 after a civil war, is obliged to unite with the mainland, by force if necessary. Xi’s government has been stepping up efforts to intimidate the island by flying fighter jets nearby and firing missiles into the sea.
Taiwan voters will choose a new president next year, and in an apparent bid to sway sentiment, former president Ma Ying-jeou of the opposition Nationalist Party will visit China next week.
Worries for US?
China’s shock success at bringing Saudi Arabia and Iran together has challenged the United States’ longstanding role as the key outside power broker in the Middle East.
Beijing’s persuading archrivals Riyadh and Tehran to reestablish diplomatic relations upstaged the United States just as Washington appears powerless to intervene in the political tensions in Israel over the Netanyahu government’s sharp-right turn, which has inflamed Palestinians.
“Anything that can help reduce tensions, avoid conflict and deter in any way dangerous and destabilizing actions by Iran is a good thing,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday on the Saudi-Iran deal announced on March 10.
US officials have tried to minimize Beijing’s role in the region, saying it is far from supplanting the United States: much of the Middle East still sits under the Pentagon’s security umbrella.
But China’s breakthrough is a real challenge, as Washington remains deeply preoccupied with the Ukraine war and, over the long term, with blunting Beijing’s diplomatic and military advance in the Indo-Pacific region.
AFP, Associated Press contributed to this report
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