Putin to meet Xi in Beijing: Five things to know | Politics News

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 lately, and Putin and Xi have developed a powerful 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 Highway Initiative, is the primary time this 12 months that the Russian chief has travelled to a rustic past people who had 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, instructed the AFP information company.

“It would legitimise Russia within the worldwide enviornment by making a constructive picture of Putin not being utterly remoted within the context of struggle.”

Listed here are 5 issues to know:

A deepening friendship …

Xi and Putin solid their friendship when the pair shared cake and vodka pictures 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 celebration, shocking him with ice cream at a convention in Tajikistan.

On a go to to Moscow the identical 12 months, Xi instructed Russian media: “President Putin is the overseas colleague that I’ve interacted with most extensively. He’s my finest good friend, and I drastically 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 had been born only a few 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 Occasion.

… and nearer bilateral ties

Consistent 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 hundreds 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 12 months, they had been speaking of a “new era” of cooperation.

Russia is now China’s second-largest commerce associate exterior Asia, and commerce between the 2 nations surged 30 % within the first half of this 12 months, Russian Economic system Minister Maxim Reshetnikov mentioned on a go to to China.

Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Middle, mentioned that from China’s view, “Russia is a protected neighbour that’s pleasant, that could be a supply of low-cost uncooked supplies, that’s a assist 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 instructed 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 line with a Chinese language transcript of the assembly.

A Russian-drafted UN Safety Council decision calling for a humanitarian ceasefire didn’t 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 problem.

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 instructed 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 also be prone to characteristic within the talks between the 2 males.

Latest experiences recommend intense fighting on the jap entrance round Avdiivka, in addition to within the northeastern Kupiansk-Lyman space.

Beijing has sought to painting itself as a impartial celebration 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 and 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 menace” 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 top of the 12 months.

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 way of Mongolia and have an annual capability of fifty billion cubic metres (bcm).

For China, Russia isn’t solely a significant supply of oil and gasoline: one of many world’s largest nuclear powers can also be a wealthy potential supply of know-how as its Individuals’s Liberation Military (PLA) seeks to modernise its typical and nuclear forces by 2035.

Russian aviation, rocket and even submarine know-how have been shared over latest many years with China, in line with a 2022 evaluation by the USA.

China and Russia additionally cooperate carefully on civilian nuclear vegetation.