Xi Jinping hails ‘deep friendship’ with Vladimir Putin as leaders meet in Beijing

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China’s president Xi Jinping lauded record high trade with Russia and stressed his “deep friendship” with Vladimir Putin, as the two leaders met in Beijing to reaffirm a partnership that has grown steadily closer since the Ukraine war.

Meeting on the sidelines of a forum to celebrate 10 years of his flagship Belt and Road foreign policy initiative, Xi told Putin annual bilateral trade between their countries had reached a “historic high” of nearly $200bn.

“Over the past decade, from 2013 to the present, I have had 42 meetings with Mr President, establishing a strong working relationship and deep friendship,” Xi told Putin, who was visiting Beijing for the first time since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February last year.

The Chinese leader did not mention the term “no-limits” partnership, which was used to describe the relationship during Putin’s last visit to Beijing in February 2022, days before he launched Russia’s attack on its neighbour.

Xi also conspicuously failed to mention it during his visit to Moscow in March, when he warned Putin behind closed doors against using nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

But Xi’s renewed praise for the relationship will do nothing to improve ties with the EU, one of China’s biggest trading partners.

The meeting with Putin comes despite repeated warnings from senior EU officials in recent weeks, including the bloc’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell, who visited Beijing last week, that China’s failure to condemn the Ukraine invasion is souring its image in Europe.

China has balanced private scepticism about Russia’s prospects in Ukraine with a shared hostility to the US-backed political and economic order. The two countries are also converging towards a pro-Palestinian stance on Israel’s operations in Gaza, an issue that is rallying countries in the global south against western support for Ukraine.

Western countries are also concerned that China’s increasing trade with Russia is propping up its economy and helping to finance the war on Ukraine.

Putin praised Xi’s BRI programme and said Russia’s bilateral trade with China was on track to surpass their target of $200bn for this year. “If you look year to year, which we did last night, we already have $200bn. And we will also definitely clear that bar for the calendar year. So we are also moving assuredly forward on the bilateral track,” Putin said.

Russia has increasingly come to accept its role as a junior partner in the relationship after China threw the Kremlin an economic lifeline when western sanctions excluded it from global financial markets and supply chains.

Chinese companies have stepped in to replace western companies shipping crucial components to Russia, while Beijing has also increased discounted purchases of Russian energy exports. The two countries are also discussing ways to accelerate long-mooted plans of reducing their reliance on the dollar and settling transactions in roubles and yuan.

Putin is pushing for China to finalise an agreement on the planned Power of Siberia-2 gas pipeline, which would help Russia reroute its gas exports eastward after Europe, their main traditional destination, moved to end its reliance on Russian energy in the wake of the invasion.

But Xi sidestepped the issue at their previous meeting in Moscow in March, indicating China was holding out for better terms, analysts said.