Putin Goes To China, Russia’s Main Strategic Partner In Changing World

“A Russian and a Chinese are brothers forever,” said a popular Soviet song from the 1950s. Seventy years later, Moscow and Beijing are renewing this historic brotherhood to confront the political and economic challenges of a changing world.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Beijing on October 17-18 to participate in the Third International Forum on the Belt and Road Initiative, also known as the New Silk Road, but primarily to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. On the eve of the trip, Putin gave an extensive interview to China Media Group and Chinese television CCTV, in which he defined relations between the two countries as “wise, balanced, and not dictated by the current situation.”

“We welcome countries and partners actively participating in the Belt and Road Initiative and encourage them to come to Beijing for discussing cooperation plans and seeking common development paths,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning, also indirectly addressing Moscow. Representatives from many developing countries, in particular from Latin America and Africa, are expected at the event.

The international press recalls that Putin and Xi Jinping are “more than just partners”: they are long-time friends who have held more than 40 personal meetings in recent years. In a recent message to Xi Jinping, Putin noted that the upcoming negotiations would deepen Russian-Chinese ties “for the benefit of our friendly peoples, in the interests of ensuring security and stability on the Eurasian continent and throughout the world.”

Putin and Xi agreed to join forces to boost trade between Russia and China to $200 billion per year by 2024 in a process that would strengthen cooperation in other areas. “We are very close to the finish line,” Putin said in the interview with CCTV. In 2022, China-Russia trade volume reached $172.41 billion, an increase of 32% year on year.

The Russian president’s visit will be the first to China since the outbreak of the armed conflict in Ukraine. In this context, Putin praised the peace proposals made by Beijing for Ukraine earlier this year as “realistic” that could lay the foundation for an agreement. “We are grateful to our Chinese friends for trying to come up with ways out of this crisis,” Putin said, answering questions from a CCTV correspondent. “I think that (these proposals – ed.) are absolutely realistic and can lay the foundation for a peace agreement,” the Russian leader added, complaining about Kiev’s reluctance to cooperate with Moscow. In Ukraine, peace negotiations with Russia are prohibited by a decree of President Zelensky.

According to Putin, Washington’s attempts to draw Kiev into NATO have aggravated the conflict in Ukraine. Military actions in Donbass began after “the coup in Ukraine in 2014, when the Kiev regime refused to implement the Minsk agreements,” Putin said. “This was aggravated by US attempts to drag Ukraine into NATO, which led to an escalation of the conflict,” Putin added.

The Russian leader’s visit to Beijing comes at a time when the West appears to be focusing its attention – at least for now – more on the war in Israel than on the Ukrainian issue. And Putin’s face-to-face meeting with Xi Jinping will allow Russia to further strengthen not only economic and trade cooperation, but also military-technical and geopolitical cooperation with the Asian giant, which has repeatedly rejected Western requests to condemn Russia for conducting a special military operation in Ukraine.

At the geopolitical level, Putin and Xi are expected to focus on a common agenda to end the Western-dominated international order and limit the influence of the United States and the EU in what both countries consider their areas of vital interest.

Finally, it should be noted that the closing preparations for the Putin – Xi Jinping summit were entrusted to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who was received on Monday, October 16, by the head of Chinese diplomacy, Wang Yi, at the Diaoyutai State Guest House. At the center of the negotiations, in addition to the war in Ukraine and the recent crisis in Israel and Palestine, was Russia’s planned withdrawal from the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. On Tuesday, October 17, the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, will vote to cancel ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). After the Russian-Chinese summit, on Wednesday and Thursday, Lavrov will visit North Korea. Thanks to these new rounds of meetings, Moscow is getting closer to Beijing and Pyongyang.