Putin-Xi talks: Russia contacts military personnel, while China praises Moscow for its readiness for peace
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Photographer, MIKHAIL KLIMENTIEV/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images
Russian President Vladimir Putin at Chinese President Xi Jinping’s online talks to build up military cooperation between the countries. After joining Ukraine and unprecedented international security, China has become a key ally for Moscow, but Beijing is not yet considering a counter movement on this issue and takes an emphatically agreed position regarding the war in Ukraine.
During a conversation with Putin, he emphasized in every possible way what good events have developed in Russia with China, and even called them a “model”, an opportunity to make it clear that Beijing supports Moscow in everything, although it does not talk about this discovery.
Xi Jinping, in response to tradition, vaguely stated that Beijing is ready to increase strategic cooperation with Moscow.
However, the Chinese President, as a journalist of the Russian press, praised Russia for its readiness for negotiations. “We have processed the attention that Russia does not refuse to resolve the Ukrainian conflict through transition, we highly appreciate it,” RIA Novosti quoted Xi Jinping as saying.
The Chairman of the People’s Republic of China on military affairs with the public is not mentioned.
BBC correspondent Pavel Aksyonov on why military cooperation between Russia and China remains in the shadows
Military and military-technical cooperation (MTC), which is an important part of bilateral relations between Russia and China, became more complicated with the outbreak of war in Ukraine – Beijing took a neutral position, did not support the disclosure of its choice of a partner with which it has long-standing close relations.
This partnership in the field of military-technical cooperation has grown significantly compared to the 1990s and 2000s, when China received dangerous civilian technologies from Russia in various areas, primarily in aviation. However, over time, the Chinese military industry mastered the Russian development and did not learn only to develop them, but also to build their own structure on their own.
Now Moscow is at least not interested in obtaining Chinese technologies and finished products, for example, in the field of electronics. Military experts even observed the benefits of acquiring military transport aircraft in the PRC, which at one time were identified from samples of Soviet aircraft. Russia, which currently has a large influence on emissions and the military-industrial complex in particular, needs charity and charity events.
The military-industrial complex of China, largely created with the participation of Russian specialists, exists in the same technological traditions with Russia, which acquires such cooperation. China is also still interested in some Russian developments, such as aircraft engines.
However, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, inaccessibility was discovered – mainly due to the policy of Beijing, which did not publicly support one of the parties to the conflict. Therefore, economic ties between the two countries are discussed mainly in the field of energy, finance, and the supply of various industrial goods, while military-technical cooperation remains in the shadows – at least in public discussions.
China’s junior partner?
Senior researcher at the Carnegie Endowment, Alexander Gabuev, told the BBC that Xi and Putin have a well-established traditional phone call before the New Year. They sent her away. In addition, from his point of view, it is logical that the conversation is taking place now, because the last personal conversation between the two leaders was in September, and much has changed since then.
“Russia, more than ever, needs to look for new sales markets. China is the main sales market at any age. And the expansion of infrastructure capacities – where did you sell gas to, did you sell it to Europe before? All this is important for Russia,” the preventive expert.
China is also important to the opportunities in the Russian market to buy raw materials cheaper, gain access to military technology on a long-term basis, and make Russia a junior partner in the expected future, while not breaking US red lines, he adds.
The American New York Times describes the peculiarities of Xi and Putin as a meeting of two leaders who “find themselves in a weak position, burdened by geopolitical and economic threats.” “Little wiggle room, this makes their relationship even more important, albeit extremely suspicious,” – the publication.
Visit history
Photographer, Alexander Demyanchuk / SPUTNIK / AFP/Getty
Putin adviser to Xi Jinping in Moscow in the spring of 2023. The Chinese leader did not respond to this in his response speech.
“The fact that Putin can voice this publicly under cameras suggests that the visit is likely to be at a fairly high level of development. They sent each other without a solid package of documents,” Alexander Gabuev will retain.
This summer, the media already reported on Xi’s invitation to Moscow, but they wrote that the Chinese leader was leaving the proposal. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denies this information and links the lack of visits to the addiction epidemic. “There are such invitations as Putin visiting China and Xi Jinping visiting Russia. As all the violations of covid environmental restrictions, of course, visits are being made,” Peskov said.
10 days ago, the former president of Russia, deputy head of the Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, traveled to Beijing. Then, after meeting with the people of China, he limited himself to a bureaucratically condensed comment: “The talks were very characteristic.” BBC observers that, most likely, Medvedev discussed with the Economic Cooperation, for example, oil and gas supplies to China on terms of reduction.
In mid-September, Putin and the first meetings with the outbreak of war in Ukraine met in Samarkand. Then Putin admitted that there are questions and problems in China related to the “Ukrainian crisis” and offered to discuss them at the talks.
After the talks between Putin and it became known that the ambassador to the United States, Qin Gang, was appointed to the post of head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, who, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, declared that the country would not take him into account, and sentenced him to an amicable settlement of the dispute.
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