Russia and China: Putin and XI confirm close partnership in Moscow

Russian President Vladimir Putin and China’s head of state XI Jinping reaffirmed their close partnership at a meeting in Moscow on the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. “Against the background of a difficult geopolitical situation and global uncertainty, the Russian-Chinese foreign policy connection is the most important stabilizing factor on the international stage,” said Putin, who, which started in 2022, gave the Russian attack war against Ukraine as a co-trigger for this crisis and uncertainty. A joint explanation raised question marks.

The internationally still isolated Kremlin chief had invited XI as the main guest for the celebrations for the victory of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany. Moscow traditionally celebrates the end of the war on May 9 with a large military parade on the Red Square. Especially in the west, the weapon show triggers massive criticism in parallel to Putin’s war against Ukraine.

China officially describes itself as neutral in the Ukraine War. However, the country is internationally criticized to support Russia in the invasion – the meeting in Moscow should only fuel the accusation.

Common declaration on the crisis solution and against nuclear war

In a joint statement, Russia and China support political ways to solve crisis situations and to eliminate not only their consequences, but also their causes. Crises should be settled “by means of dialogue”, and the international community should also be involved in the settlement of “hot conflicts”, the explanation says. However, the document published on the KREML website did not show whether this should also apply to the solution to the Russian-Ukrainian War.

In addition, Moscow and Beijing wanted to deepen their cooperation in “maintaining and strengthening global strategic stability and combating common threats”. In addition, Russia and China agreed to counteract a militarization of space together. The space should not be used for armed confrontations, it said.

Both Russia and China wanted to counter activities that aim to achieve military superiority and to use space as a “war zone”. Experts assume that both countries and the USA are already working on specific plans for military use of space.

In view of the current tensions, both sides rejected an “unleashing of the scaffolding”. Here, too, there was no mention that Russia’s war of aggression against Kiev, especially in the former Soviet republics, stirs up fears of expanding the conflict and that this also leads to new, increased upgrade in many countries in Europe.

Moscow and Beijing also spoke out against a nuclear war. They confirmed their adherence to the joint explanation of the leaders of the five nuclear weapons states – Russia, China, USA, France and Great Britain – about the prevention of a nuclear war and avoidance of a raging on January 3, 2022. Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine over three years ago, Russia has already threatened with the use of nuclear weapons.

Trade is to be expanded

According to the Chinese State Agency Xinhua, XI said that Russia and China had deepened their mutual political trust in view of the unprecedented global changes at the meeting.

Russia is an important sales market for Chinese cars. Together with Russia, the People’s Republic wants to defend the interests of both countries before “unilateralism and harassment” – a wording that China also uses with regard to the trade dispute with the USA. Unilateralism describes the strategy of a state to pursue especially its own interests – regardless of international partners and organizations.

China, in turn, is an important buyer of Russian raw materials such as gas and oil. The sale of the energy sources rinses money in Putin’s war treasury. Russia’s Minister of Energy Sergei Ziwiljow said with a view to plans in the EU to do without Russian gas from 2027 that Moscow would find other customers. He again described the western sanctions in the course of the Russian war against Ukraine as illegal.