Chinese President Xi Jinping met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Beijing today. The meeting was Xi’s first face-to-face meeting with a world leader in nearly two years and highlights the deepening of ties between the authoritarian leaders.
According to the Kremlin’s translation of their remarks, Xi told Putin: “We are working together to bring to life true multilateralism. Defending the real spirit of democracy serves as a reliable foundation for uniting the world in overcoming crises and defending equality.”
Putin is in Beijing to attend the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, which will be held later today. He will be the most prominent diplomatic presence at the event, which has been boycotted by several nations, such as the United States (US), United Kingdom, Canada, Japan and Australia, over human rights concerns in Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong, Inner Mongolia and Taiwan.
In contrast, the Russian leader pledged his support to the Chinese leadership just ahead of the sporting event, which is internationally being dubbed as the “Genocide Games.” “I have known President Xi Jinping for a long time. As good friends and politicians who share many common views on solving world problems, we have always maintained close communication,” CCTV quoted Putin as saying on Friday.
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🇷🇺🇨🇳 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov & Wang Yi met and held talks in Beijing on February 3. pic.twitter.com/9x7ShJRajH
In addition, Putin wrote an article for China’s state-run Xinhua news agency on Thursday, wherein the Russian leader extolled the two neighbours’ close relationship. “Foreign policy coordination between Russia and China is based on close and coinciding approaches to solving global and regional issues,” Putin wrote.
He also slammed the West’s diplomatic boycotts of the Olympics. Calling such moves “fundamentally wrong”, Putin wrote: “Sadly, attempts by a number of countries to politicise sports for their selfish interests have recently intensified.”
In return, Beijing has extended support to Moscow’s overtures at its border with Ukraine. On Thursday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, following which they signed cooperation documents between the two foreign ministries. Last week, Wang went as far as to justify Russia’s security concerns as “legitimate”, saying they should be “taken seriously and addressed”.
Russia has amassed tens of thousands of troops along the Ukrainian border, which has the West worried. The West has accused Moscow of preparing another invasion of the Ukrainian peninsula. To deter Russia from invading Ukraine, Western nations have threatened the former with punitive sanctions, supplied Ukraine with military equipment, and increased their military presence in Eastern Europe.
However, Russia has denied any plans to invade Ukraine. Instead, Moscow has said that it is seeking legal guarantees to restrict the eastward expansion of NATO and Ukraine’s membership in the defence alliance.
The latest meeting is an open signal of China’s support for Russia’s provocations in Ukraine and Moscow turning a blind eye to Beijing’s human rights record.