Vladimir Putin and China’s defence minister Li Shangfu have vowed to deepen military cooperation between China and Russia after the men met in Moscow over the weekend. Li, who met the Russian president on Sunday on his first trip overseas in the role, said China was willing to work with Russia to have close strategic communications between their militaries. He said China was prepared to strengthen multilateral coordination and cooperation with Russia, according to state-run CCTV news. “China is willing to work with Russia to make new contributions to the…
Tag: Russia
Why China’s Leader Hasn’t Called the President of Ukraine
The last time President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, spoke, they celebrated 30 years of diplomatic ties, hailing their “deepening political mutual trust” and their people’s “profound friendship.” That was in January of last year. Less than two months later, Russia, one of China’s closest partners, invaded Ukraine. Mr. Xi has not spoken since to Mr. Zelensky, despite the latter’s repeated requests. And the “sound and stable” relationship they touted seems like a distant memory. The question of when and whether Mr. Xi will speak…
China agreed to secretly arm Russia, leaked Pentagon documents reveal
China approved the provision of lethal aid to Russia for its war in Ukraine but wanted any shipments to remain a secret, according to leaked US government documents. A top-secret intelligence summary dated 23 February states that Beijing had approved the incremental provision of weapons to Moscow, which it would disguise as civilian items, according to a report in the Washington Post. The intelligence was gathered by US agents eavesdropping on Russia’s secret service discussions, the newspaper reported. The Russians said China’s central military commission wanted the shipments to remain…
China will not arm parties involved in Ukraine conflict, says minister – video
China’s foreign minister has said Beijing will not sell weapons to parties involved in the conflict in Ukraine and will regulate the export of items with dual civilian and military use. Qin Gang was responding to concerns that China was considering providing military assistance to Russia, which Beijing has backed politically and rhetorically in the conflict while formally saying it remained neutral. Speaking at a news conference with his visiting German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, Qin reiterated China’s willingness to help facilitate negotiations to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict…
Xi’s trip to Moscow didn’t impress the west – but his most important audience is at home
As Xi Jinping returns to Beijing after his first trip to Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine, the contradictory forces that dominate the Chinese leader’s relationship with Moscow are no closer to being resolved. Xi wants to be a strong ally to Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, and a global peacemaker. Both cannot be true. The red carpet and more – a brass band, Siberian salmon – was rolled out for Xi’s two-day visit to Moscow. Xi and Putin raised a glass to the “deepening of the Russian-Chinese…
Zelensky Makes Morale-Boosting Trip to Bakhmut
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, made a rare and defiant trip near the front line on Wednesday, personally thanking soldiers who have been fighting in the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut, which has become a potent symbol of Ukrainian resistance. The trip to the Bakhmut area came on a day when air- and seaborne drones attacked the Russian-occupied peninsula of Crimea and a Russian missile ripped into a nine-story apartment complex in Zaporizhzhia, in the south, killing at least one person and injuring more than 30 others. At…
Despite Xi’s trip to Russia, dialogue between China and Ukraine is still possible
Hours after Xi Jinping wrapped up a state dinner hosted in a lavish 15th-century palace, where he extolled Beijing’s “positive role” in Vladimir Putin’s invasion, Russia sent a swarm of drones to Ukraine that killed seven people in a town south of Kyiv. Commenting on the attack, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, wrote: “Every time someone tries to hear the word ‘peace’ in Moscow, another order is given there for such criminal strikes.” In his statement, Zelenskiy made no mention of the Chinese leader’s visit to the Russian capital –…
Putin should be under no illusion – Xi is not Russia’s knight in shining armour | Olga Chyzh
The three-day visit of Xi Jinping to Russia was packed with action: a crepe and quail meal, photo ops and ceremonial signings. Pomp and circumstance aside, Xi’s visit to Russia did not live up to Putin’s hopes and expectations. As it turns out, the obvious similarities between the two leaders – their autocratic hold on power and their tenuous relationship with the west – do not directly translate into common interests and goals. Xi came and went, making no firm commitments and leaving Putin and his cronies agape with disappointment.…
Western democracy is weaker in this new cold war than it was in the first one | Rafael Behr
Once again the world is divided into competing spheres of eastern and western power, but is it a new cold war or reheated leftovers from the last one? The answer is a bit of both. For Vladimir Putin, the superpower rivalry of the 20th century never ended, although in economic and military terms there was a clear winner and it wasn’t the Soviet Union. Russia’s president is determined to reverse that humiliation, in the national imagination, at least. In other realms, the trajectory is further decline. Russia can still make…
A tale of two visits: Kishida and Xi tread starkly different paths on Ukraine
On Tuesday, Japan’s prime minister laid a wreath for the dead outside a church in the blasted Ukrainian town of Bucha, while 800km away in Moscow Xi Jinping was treated to an opulent state dinner by Vladimir Putin, underscoring the division in Asia over Russia’s invasion. The first Japanese leader to visit a country in conflict since the second world war, Kishida toured Bucha, a town that has become synonymous with Russian brutality, and where the mayor has said more than 400 civilians were killed. “The world was astonished to…