Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Beijing and is scheduled to carry bilateral talks along with his Chinese language counterpart Xi Jinping on Wednesday.
Ties between Russia and China have deepened in recent times, and Putin and Xi have developed a robust private friendship. The 2 males final met in March in Moscow.
Putin’s journey to China throughout which he’ll participate in a discussion board to mark 10 years of the Belt and Street Initiative, is the primary time this yr that the Russian chief has travelled to a rustic past people who have been as soon as a part of the previous Soviet Union.
“(The) Russian delegation’s presence in Beijing is necessary for Moscow,” Alicja Bachulska, an professional on Chinese language overseas coverage on the European Council on International Relations, advised the AFP information company.
“It is going to legitimise Russia within the worldwide area by making a optimistic picture of Putin not being utterly remoted within the context of struggle.”
Listed below are 5 issues to know:
A deepening friendship …
Xi and Putin cast their friendship when the pair shared cake and vodka photographs to mark the Russian chief’s birthday at a summit in Indonesia in 2013.
They’ve since drawn nearer, with Xi accompanying Putin on a high-speed prepare experience throughout China to make conventional steamed buns 5 years later, and the 2 males consuming caviar-topped blini throughout a river cruise when Xi later visited Russia.
In 2019, the Russian chief threw Xi a party, stunning him with ice cream at a convention in Tajikistan.
On a go to to Moscow the identical yr, Xi advised Russian media: “President Putin is the overseas colleague that I’ve interacted with most extensively. He’s my greatest good friend, and I vastly treasure our friendship.”
In an interview with Chinese language state media forward of the newest go to, Putin was effusive in his reward for Xi, praising the relevance and significance of Xi’s insurance policies and imaginative and prescient of a multipolar world.
Broadcaster CGTN mentioned that Putin described Xi as a “true world chief”.
The 2 males have been born just some months aside within the early Nineteen Fifties.
Whereas Xi was the scion of a household of communist revolutionaries, Putin was born in additional humble circumstances earlier than turning into an intelligence officer within the Soviet Union.
Each males discovered classes within the collapse of the USSR – for Putin, it was a humiliation and a “main geopolitical catastrophe” and for Xi, a cautionary story for China’s personal Communist Get together.
… and nearer bilateral ties
In keeping with their leaders’ deepening friendship, China and Russia have additionally moved nearer.
Putin was final in Beijing in February 2022, simply days earlier than he despatched 1000’s of troops throughout the border into Ukraine in what he referred to as a “particular army operation”.
At the moment the 2 males signed an settlement promising a “no-limits” relationship. By March this yr, they have been speaking of a “new era” of cooperation.
Russia is now China’s second-largest commerce companion exterior Asia, and commerce between the 2 international locations surged 30 % within the first half of this yr, Russian Financial system Minister Maxim Reshetnikov mentioned on a go to to China.
![Putin being interviewed in Moscow by Chinese state media at the Kremlin. He is in cavernous white and blue coloured room.](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/33YE3WX-highres-1697517977.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C487)
Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Heart, mentioned that from China’s view, “Russia is a secure neighbour that’s pleasant, that may be a supply of low-cost uncooked supplies, that’s a help for Chinese language initiatives on the worldwide stage and that’s additionally a supply of army applied sciences, a few of people who China doesn’t have.”
“For Russia, China is its lifeline, financial lifeline in its brutal repression in opposition to Ukraine,” Gabuev advised The Related Press information company.
Israel-Hamas struggle
Putin involves Beijing amid expectations that Israel might quickly launch a floor invasion of the blockaded Palestinian enclave of Gaza.
The difficulty was excessive on the agenda when the Russian and Chinese language overseas ministers held talks in Beijing on Monday, with each calling for intensified efforts to keep away from a humanitarian disaster.
“It’s crucial {that a} ceasefire be put in place, that the 2 sides be introduced again to the negotiating desk, and that an emergency humanitarian channel be established to stop an additional humanitarian catastrophe,” Wang mentioned on the assembly, in response to a Chinese language transcript of the assembly.
A Russian-drafted UN Safety Council decision calling for a humanitarian ceasefire did not get the minimal 9 votes wanted within the 15-member physique on Monday, and Putin and Xi are prone to choose up the baton on the difficulty.
Putin held a number of calls with leaders within the area on Monday together with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
He advised Netanyahu that Moscow wished to assist stop a humanitarian catastrophe.
China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported earlier that Zhai Jun, Beijing’s particular envoy on the Center East, will go to the area this week to push for a ceasefire and promote peace talks.
Ukraine struggle
Even amid the deepening disaster within the Center East, Russia’s persevering with battle in Ukraine can be prone to characteristic within the talks between the 2 males.
Current stories recommend intense fighting on the japanese entrance round Avdiivka, in addition to within the northeastern Kupiansk-Lyman space.
Beijing has sought to painting itself as a impartial get together within the struggle and in March, in regards to the time of Xi’s go to to Moscow, launched into a flurry of diplomatic exercise to advertise its 12-point peace plan.
These efforts have made little headway and Ukraine’s allies have largely dismissed Beijing’s try to place itself as mediator.
Nonetheless, on a go to to China that ended on the weekend, European Union coverage chief Josep Borrell urged China to do what it might to finish the struggle in Ukraine. Borrell mentioned he had conveyed to the Chinese language that the EU thought-about Russia “an enormous risk” to its safety and that the group was dedicated to supporting Ukraine.
The EU is anticipated to have a summit with China earlier than the tip of the yr.
Power
Oil and gasoline is a key concern for Russia amid worldwide sanctions, and the bosses of Russia’s Gazprom and Rosneft are mentioned to be a part of Putin’s delegation to Beijing.
Russia is raring to safe a deal to promote extra pure gasoline to China and plans to construct the Energy of Siberia-2 pipeline, which might journey by means of Mongolia and have an annual capability of fifty billion cubic metres (bcm).
For China, Russia just isn’t solely a significant supply of oil and gasoline: one of many world’s largest nuclear powers can be a wealthy potential supply of expertise as its Individuals’s Liberation Military (PLA) seeks to modernise its standard and nuclear forces by 2035.
Russian aviation, rocket and even submarine expertise have been shared over latest many years with China, in response to a 2022 evaluation by the US.
China and Russia additionally cooperate intently on civilian nuclear crops.