Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands after signing a joint statement during Xi’s state visit to Moscow in March 2023.
Published October 16, 2023
When Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met in Beijing for the opening of the 2022 Winter Olympics, they confidently outlined their vision for a new international order no longer dominated by the United States and its democratic allies.
Now, nearly two years on, and with geopolitical fault lines hardening globally, the world’s two most powerful autocrats are preparing to see each other again in the Chinese capital.
The meeting comes under the shadow of conflict, with Russia’s grinding invasion of Ukraine – launched just three weeks after the leaders’ last get-together in Beijing – and Israel’s war against Hamas, which now threatens to escalate regionally.
Both Beijing and Moscow have criticized Israel’s actions in response to a shock attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas last week and called for a ceasefire, in the latest showing of the two powers’ efforts to step up their alternative leadership to that of the United States, which affirms Israel’s on-going right to retaliate.
Xi and Putin are likely to discuss the situation during a meeting this week as Putin arrives as a guest of honor at the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing – an exceptionally rare foreign trip for the diplomatically isolated leader.
Heads of state, representatives and delegations from more than 140 countries are expected to attend China’s landmark, two-day diplomatic event beginning Tuesday, which marks 10 years since the start of Xi’s global infrastructure funding drive, and presents the Chinese leader with an opportunity to project Beijing’s growing global ambitions.
A rare trip
Putin, who has seldom left the bloc of former Soviet nations since launching his war, is shunned by the West and wanted by an international court for alleged war crimes. Experts say he is also unwilling to travel anywhere he feels his personal security can’t be absolutely assured. He made his first known trip of the year outside of Russian-controlled territory last week, with a visit to Kyrgyzstan.
But despite Putin’s changing circumstances since his last time in Beijing, the two leaders have become increasingly aligned in presenting an alternative world view to the one offered by the West – as they seek to bring more countries alongside their efforts to shift a global balance of power they feel is stacked against them.
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SOURCE: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/16/china/china-bri-forum-xi-jinping-putin-russia-intl-hnk/index.html
RELATED: Putin’s visit to Beijing underscores China’s economic and diplomatic support for Russia
Published October 16, 2023
Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to meet this week with Chinese leaders in Beijing on a visit that underscores China’s support for Moscow during its war in Ukraine.
The two countries have forged an informal alliance against the United States and other democratic nations that is now complicated by the Israel-Hamas war. China has sought to balance its ties with Israel with its economic relations with Iran and Syria, which are strongly backed by Russia.
Putin’s visit is also a show of support for Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road initiative to build infrastructure and expand China’s overseas influence.
Putin gave an interview to Chinese state media praising the massive but loosely linked BRI projects.
“Yes, we see that some people consider it an attempt by the People’s Republic of China to put someone under its thumb, but we see otherwise, we just see desire for cooperation,” he said in the interview with state broadcaster CCTV, according to a transcript released by the Kremlin on Monday.
The Russian leader will be among the highest profile guests at a gathering marking the 10th anniversary of Xi’s announcement of the BRI policy, which has laden countries such as Zambia and Sri Lanka with heavy debt after they signed contracts with Chinese companies to build roads, airports and other public works they could not otherwise afford.
Putin’s visit has not been officially confirmed, but Chinese officials have suggested he will arrive late Monday.
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SOURCE: https://apnews.com/article/china-russia-putin-xi-israel-139930a92289b7d34ce840bdfe531259
RELATED:Putin to visit China to deepen ‘no limits’ partnership with Xi
Published October 16, 2023
Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Xi Jinping in China this week in a bid to deepen a partnership forged between the United States’ two biggest strategic competitors.
Putin will attend the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on Oct. 17-18, his first trip outside the former Soviet Union since the Hague-based International Criminal Court issued a warrant for him in March over the deportation of children from Ukraine.
China and Russia declared a “no limits” partnership in February 2022 when Putin visited Beijing just days before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, triggering the deadliest land war in Europe since World War II.
The United States casts China as its biggest competitor and Russia as its biggest nation-state threat while U.S. President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. argues that this century will be defined by an existential contest with between democracies and autocracies.
“Over the past decade, Xi has built with Putin’s Russia the most consequential undeclared alliance in the world,” Graham Allison, professor at Harvard University and a former assistant secretary of defense under Bill Clinton, told Reuters.
“The US will have to come to grips with the inconvenient fact that a rapidly rising systemic rival and a revanchist one-dimensional superpower with the largest nuclear arsenal in the world are tightly aligned in opposing the USA.”
Mr. Biden has referred to Mr. Xi as a “dictator” and has said Mr. Putin is a “killer” and a leader who cannot remain in power. Beijing and Moscow have scolded Biden for those remarks.
Since the Ukraine war, Mr. Putin has mostly stayed within the former Soviet Union, though he visited Iran last year for talks with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
