China visit to the Kremlin: backing from Beijing

A few days after the announcement of a peace initiative for Ukraine, China’s leading foreign politician Wang met Russian President Putin. According to Putin, a visit by the Chinese head of state Xi is to follow.

China’s top foreign policy maker Wang Yi spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a visit to Moscow. According to the Russian state news agency Tass, Wang said China is ready to deepen both political and strategic cooperation. Putin praised the close ties between the two countries as particularly important at the moment. According to a report by the Reuters news agency, the Russian President also announced that President Xi Jinping would visit Russia. An agreement was reached on this, according to Putin.

“International relations are complicated today,” Putin said at the start of the meeting. “In this context, cooperation between the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation (…) is particularly important for stabilizing the international situation.” Initially, there was no official communication on the peace initiative that China had announced at the Munich Security Conference for Ukraine, which was attacked by Russia a year ago.

Previously meeting with Secretary of the Security Council

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said at the beginning of the meeting with Wang that relations between the two countries have developed because each is standing up for the other’s interests despite the global turmoil. Wang also described the relationships positively, which he says “knows no boundaries.”

The top Chinese diplomat had already exchanged views with the Secretary of the National Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, in Moscow on Tuesday. He called for closer cooperation with Beijing to counter efforts by the West, which he accused of trying to thwart an alliance between China and Russia.

Strained Relationships

In view of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, relations between China and the USA in particular are currently considered to be seriously strained. In the past few days, the United States has expressed concern that China could supply weapons and ammunition to Russia for use against Ukraine – China denies this. Moscow this week suspended its participation in the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty with Washington, “New Start.”

China is considered a close ally of Russia. At the same time, Beijing has so far largely complied with the international sanctions against Moscow in order not to be affected by punitive measures itself.