Hours after another massive attack on Ukraine, the isolated Russian president speaks via video conference with his Chinese counterpart to show his unity against the West, which is calling for Beijing to mediate
Hours after another massive Russian bombing of Ukraine, the president, Vladimir Putin, returned this Friday to demonstrate his alliance with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in a videoconference summit. In the first minutes of their meeting, broadcast on Russian television and reported by international agencies, Putin not only boasted about his good bilateral relations, but even invited Xi to visit Moscow in the spring.
“We are waiting for you, Mr. President. Dear friend, we are waiting for you next spring for a state visit to Moscow,” Putin publicly announced, for whom this trip would “show the world how close relations between Russia and China are.” According to Reuters, the Russian president has assured that these “are the best in history and pass all tests” In full confrontation with the West over the invasion of Ukraine, and with Russia condemned by the international community as seen at the last G-20 summit in Bali, Putin recalled Xi Jinping that “we share the same views on the causes, course and logic of the current transformation of the global geopolitical scenario.
In a much shorter response than Putin’s lengthy introduction, Xi responded that, “given the difficult and far from clear international situation”, Beijing was willing to “intensify strategic cooperation with Russia, provide development opportunities to each other and be global partners” . for the benefit of the peoples of both countries and with the importance of stability in the world”.
While neither has mentioned the war in Ukraine in the part that emerged from their conversation, Putin has emphasized that “we aim to strengthen cooperation between the armed forces of Russia and China”. Attempting to project an image of unity with Xi to ease his international isolation, he praised their joint efforts to counter “unprecedented pressures and provocations from the West”. In addition, he recalled that Russia has become one of the main suppliers of oil to China, above Saudi Arabia, and gas, with 13,800 million cubic meters through November.
Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when the two met at the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Xi Jinping celebrated “unlimited friendship” with Russia, in clear ideological opposition to the democracies of the West. But the Kremlin’s military failure, which has exposed the supposed power of the Russian military and its serious problems and failures, has weakened Putin and marginalized Moscow, breaking its alliance with China due to the global impact of the war. In their last face-to-face meeting, at the Shanghai Security Organization summit in Uzbekistan in September, Putin admitted that Beijing had “questions and concerns” about the war.
Since the outbreak ten months ago, the Chinese regime has implicitly supported Moscow, blaming the US and NATO for the situation in its clear confrontation with the West. But Xi Jinping may be forced to moderate his alliance with Putin over his bid to return to the international scene after nearly three years of lockdown in his country due to the pandemic. While Xi has not yet gone as far as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who snubbed Putin in Samarkand that “now is not the time for war,” he met with all Western leaders at the G20 summit, seeking his mediation with Russia for peace to achieve.
After Xi Jinping remained in power during the XX Communist Party Congress in October, Xi Jinping’s position has also been weakened by China’s historic protests against Covid-0 restrictions, which even called for his resignation. Amid an explosion of infections in his country, and with the international community once again fearing a resurgence of the pandemic following his reopening of borders, Xi is also uninterested in such a turbulent international scene that the recovery of his country is in danger. economy, badly damaged by these three years of closures and confinement.
Demonstration of unity between the two countries or China’s attempt to appease the conflict, the result of this virtual summit with Putin will be seen in the coming weeks, whether the rain of missiles and drones on Ukraine continues or not and whether Xi Jinping travels to Moscow in the spring.
Source: La Verdad
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