As Chinese leader Xi Jinping bid farewell to his host Vladimir Putin after formal talks in the kremlin on Tuesday, he spoke about “changes that haven’t happened in 100 years” and that Russia and China, together, “are driving these changes.”
To which Putin replied: “Okay.”
The two presidents, during their meetings, seemed to have discussed changes to the world order that their countries could unite to enforce.
The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported that the Kremlin is “convinced that Western countries are very nervous about the talks between Putin and Xi.”
“Two great powers and neighbors are resolving the most important issues of world politics, as well as bilateral relations,” the agency said in its balance of the talks between the two men.
As Xi finished his three day visit to Moscow on Wednesday, his first trip abroad since being re-elected to a rare third term, earlier expectations that the Chinese president could help broker an end to the war in Ukraine appear to have diminished.
Instead, the world witnessed a spectacular show of China’s support for the Russian president, who has been placed under indictment by the International Criminal Court as an alleged war criminal, as well as documentation of a special association, which has been conducted to a “new era”. .”
No progress in the Ukraine conflict
Beijing last month launched a 12 points official “Position on the political solution of the crisis in Ukraine”, which aims to mediate peace and end the bloody war now in its second year.
In a joint statement issued on Tuesday, President Putin said that Russia agreed with “many of the provisions of the peace plan presented by China” and the model “can be taken as the basis for a peaceful agreement when they are ready for it in the West and in kyiv.”
“However, so far we have not observed such readiness on their part,” Putin added.
Russia and China, Putin said, were “pursuing an independent and self-efficient foreign policy.”
“We are working in solidarity in the formation of a more just and democratic multipolar world order, which must be based on the central role of the UN, its Security Council, international law, the purposes and principles of the UN Charter,” he said. the russian. said the president.
Putin also accused the West of deciding to “fight Russia to the last Ukrainian”, referring to the news that the UK was going to supply Ukraine with munitions containing depleted uranium.
Moscow described them as “weapons with a nuclear component” and threatened to retaliate, but the British Defense Ministry dismissed it as “disinformation,” saying depleted uranium “is a standard component and has nothing to do with nuclear weapons. ”.
Feng Chongyi, a professor of political science at the University of Technology Sydney, said Xi’s proposed 12-point peace plan “does not condemn Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, nor does it consider Russia’s withdrawal as a precondition for peace.” .
“Neither Ukraine nor the international community will accept it,” he told RFA Cantonese.
On Tuesday, Spokesperson for the US National Security Council John Kirby told reporters that “if China wants to play a constructive role here in this conflict, then they should put pressure on Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine and from Ukraine’s sovereign territory.”
China does not have “an impartial position” on the ukraine affairKirby said, adding that the United States “has seen no indication that they are about to provide lethal weapons.”
Various Western media outlets have suggested that China sent ammunition and military equipment for Russia to use in Ukraine. conflict but Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs he repeatedly denied the reports.
Vassily Kashin, a political scientist at Moscow’s prestigious Higher School of Economics, said there were no signs China wanted to change its long-standing position of not arming Russia during the Ukraine war.
“Everything that China is doing is as useful for China as it is for Russia,” he said.
“If China sees that it will lose more than gain from some actions to support Russia, such actions are never taken,” Kashin told Radio Free Asia (RFA). “This is why China has so far refrained from selling weapons to Russia, even despite the fact that Chinese weapons would likely be a complete game changer on the battlefield in Ukraine, as China is the The world’s number one producer of artillery and tactical UAVs (unmanned aerial aircraft). vehicles).”
In Washington, John Kirby told reporters that Putin expected additional support from China after Xi Jinping’s visit because “he knows he has shortage problems and he is trying to overcome them.”
That is why the United States does not want to “see a ceasefire at this time,” Kirby said. “Because a ceasefire right now, freezing the lines where they are, basically gives you the time and space you need to try to re-equip, re-crew…”
Meanwhile, on Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused China of providing “diplomatic cover” for Russia.
China responded that “the United States is in no position to point the finger at China, let alone deflect blame from us.”
“(T)he world has yet to see any effort from the US that is actually aimed at peace as it continues to pour weapons onto the battlefield,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said. a news conference.
‘Russia still has friends’
Luke Coffey, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a US think tank, said Xi and Putin were likely to discuss “possible ways China can support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine both diplomatically and through logistical support.” ”.
“Vladimir Putin will use Xi’s visit to show his domestic audience that Russia still has friends,” Coffey told RFA Mandarin.
According to him, “it will be Xi who will benefit the most as Russia is desperate for China’s support.”
Feng Chongyi, from the University of Technology Sydney, said the Chinese president’s trip was linked to his long-term ambitions to lead an anti-American global alliance.
“He wants to join Russia in dealing with the US-led Western world, or the US-led international order,” Feng said. “He doesn’t want to see Putin fail, he wants to play with the interests of Putin and Russia to change the international order as he sees it.”
Analysts have spoken of an apparent Russian turn toward China, fueled by the war in Ukraine. But according to Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore, “there is a debate on this issue.”
“Some claim that Beijing wants a junior partner in Russia that can distract the US and its allies while providing key energy and minerals. Others see a weak Russia as a potential liability for China,” Chong said. “Both are plausible, but such discussions revolve around a lot of speculation today.”
Evan Feigenbaum, deputy director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the Sino-Russian partnership should be seen in the context of strategic calculations toward Washington as “Beijing’s main focus in the world today, and its perception of its main strategic problem . is United States”.
The former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State wrote in your institute’s website that while “association with Putin’s Russia is not free, since Beijing pays a price in terms of reputation… it will also pay dividends for China.”
“It will win contracts, ensure Russia’s lasting economic dependence on China, and more closely link the two countries’ resource-consumption and production sectors,” Feigenbaum wrote.
of mutual benefit
On Tuesday, Russian and Chinese officials signed two major joint declarations on strategic cooperation in “a new era,” as well as 14 bilateral cooperation documents.
The documents mainly cover areas of “economics and technology, including future energy and infrastructure projects, as well as Chinese industrial investments in Russia,” said Kashin of the Moscow Higher School of Economics.
the kremlin He said that Russia was “ready to increase supplies of oil and natural gas to China.”
The total volume of gas supply by 2030 will be at least 98 billion cubic meters plus 100 million tons of liquefied natural gas.
The two sides have agreed on almost all the details of the new Power of Siberia 2 pipeline, which will transport 50 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia to China via Mongolia.
China has become a leading importer of Russian oil, while Russia is helping build nuclear power plants on Chinese soil.
Despite the pandemic and sanctions, trade between Russia and China in 2022 reached a record US$185 billion and is expected to exceed US$200 billion in 2023. Russia has said it favors the use of the Chinese yuan in agreements between the Russian Federation and countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
“We are ready to support Chinese companies in replacing the production facilities of Western companies that left Russia,” Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday, adding that “a large-scale package of 80 significant and promising bilateral projects in various fields worth around $165 billion has been laid.”
The current US and European sanctions against Russia appear to have brought Moscow and Beijing even closer and “there is not much the West can do to make Russia or China break off that mutually beneficial cooperation,” at least for now, Kashin told RFA.
Fong Tak Ho and Jenny Tang contributed to this report from Washington.
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