On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin will go to China for discussions with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which the Kremlin hopes would strengthen the strategic alliance between the two most potent geopolitical adversaries of the US.
When Putin visited Beijing in February 2022, a few days before he dispatched tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, sparking the worst land conflict in Europe since World conflict Two, the two countries announced a “no limits” cooperation.
Putin’s decision to travel to China for his first overseas trip after taking office for a six-year term that would keep him in office until at least 2030 is a statement to the world about his priorities and the strength of his connection with Xi.
Putin commended Xi in an interview with China’s Xinhua news agency for his role in establishing a “strategic partnership” between Russia and China that is founded on shared values and a strong sense of trust.
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“It was the unprecedentedly high level of the strategic partnership between our countries that determined my choice of China as the first state that I would visit after officially taking office as president of the Russian Federation,” Putin stated.
“We will try to establish closer cooperation in the field of industry and high technology, space and peaceful nuclear energy, artificial intelligence, renewable energy sources and other innovative sectors,” Putin stated.
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At a lavish event honoring 75 years since the Soviet Union recognized Mao Zedong’s People’s Republic of China in 1949, 71-year-old Putin and 70-year-old Xi will participate.
In March, only Reuters revealed that Putin would visit China in May.
While US President Joe Biden contends that an existential struggle between democracies and autocracies will define this century, the US portrays Russia as its greatest nation-state threat and China as its main rival.
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Putin and Xi both have a broad perspective on the world, viewing China as a rival to the United States in everything from hard military might to quantum computing and synthetic biology, and viewing the West as decadent and in decline.
Putin will also travel to Harbin, a city with close ties to Russia in northern China. It became unclear at first if Putin would visit any other Asian capitals following Beijing.
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As the United States and its allies levied sanctions against both countries, particularly against Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine, China has deepened its military and trade ties with Russia in recent years.
According to the West, China has been instrumental in assisting Russia in withstanding the sanctions and has given Russia vital technologies that it has utilized in the conflict in Ukraine.
China, which was formerly Moscow’s subordinate ally in the worldwide Communist hierarchy, is still by far the most powerful ally of Russia globally and its main source of crude oil.
Putin’s visit comes after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Beijing late last month.
partly as a caution to Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, about increasing military aid to Russia.
The two leaders will have informal talks over tea on Thursday evening, according to Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin advisor for foreign policy. The topics of discussion will include trade, energy, Asia, and Ukraine.
Along with Russia’s most influential CEOs, Andrei Belousov, Putin’s recently appointed defense minister, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu, and foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov will also be there.
While Alexei Miller, the CEO of Gazprom GAZP.MM, was in Iran on a working visit on Wednesday, it was not immediately clear if he would travel to China.
