The leaders of China and Russia promised to deepen their “strategic partnership” in a demonstration of solidarity in Moscow on Thursday, throwing themselves as defenders of the World Order.
Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping on the eve of a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe.
The two parties signed a joint declaration to “further deepen the complete strategic partnership of cooperation in the new era between China and Russia”.
Their meeting comes three years after Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine, triggering the deadliest conflict in Europe since the Second World War.
He also came while the president of Taiwan, in Taipei, marked the anniversary of the Second World War by making great comparisons between threats to the European peace and aggression of China.
President Lai Ching-Te told diplomats: “Authoritarianism and aggression only lead to slaughter, tragedy and more important inequalities.” He added that Taiwan – an autonomous island that China claims like his – and Europe “now faced the threat of a new authoritarian block”.
The meeting between XI and Putin was the last demonstration of solidarity in what they presented in 2022 as a friendship “without limits”. A few days after this declaration, Putin had launched a war in a sovereign nation – Ukraine – in a repudiation of international law.
While China has avoided providing diplomatic and military support manifested for the invasion of Ukraine, it launched Russia an economic rescue that helped it navigate Western sanctions.
XI China faces its own forms of pressure from the West, because the country is now locked in a tariff war launched by US President Donald Trump.
The Chinese chief made veiled references in the United States in his remarks on Thursday.
China and Russia should “be real steel friends who have undergone a hundred trials by fire,” Xi told Putin. He also said they would work together to counter “unilateralism and intimidation”.
Ja Ian Chong, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore, said that the more than 20 cooperation agreements signed by China and Russia reflected that, in the current geopolitical landscape, China and Russia need the help of the other.
Sung Kuo -Chen, researcher of the Center for International Relations at the National University of Chengchi in Taiwan, said that Xi could be concerned that Trump – who is often considered by criticisms as friendly in Moscow – will seek to win Putin to isolate jointly and contain China.
“This is what Xi Jinping is most worried. He wants to improve again and consolidate the strategic cooperative relationship between China and Russia,” Sung told RFA.
Edited by Mat Pennington.